Iceland’s first billion-dollar ‘unicorn’ – which harnesses fish skin to treat wounds and burns – is now aiming to help women recovering from mastectomies.
Kerecis has disrupted the global market for wound, burn and trauma treatment in the last decade, thanks to a biproduct of one of Iceland’s biggest exports.
It utilises North-Atlantic cod skins to create a natural graft material that enables cellular therapy, tissue regeneration and protection.
Last year it became Iceland’s first unicorn after the Danish healthcare products multinational Coloplast acquired it for US$1.3bn.
To date its focus has been limited to chronic, acute and surgical wounds, burns and trauma. This is supported by growing body of clinical evidence for faster wound healing via its products.
But speaking to Health Tech World’s sister publication Femtech World in Reykjavik, CEO and founder Fertram Sigurjonsson (pictured below) reveals that the company’s research and development team is now working on applying fish skin to improve post-mastectomy breast reconstruction procedures.
“We have three avenues for growth,” he says. “The first is geographical expansion, and we will do that through the [parent] company. The second is to expand within the business we are already in, which is chronic wounds, burns and surgical wounds; so more features and products.
“The third avenue for expansion is new indications, including breast reconstruction.
“When women lose breasts after a mastectomy for cancer, there is a pocket that is put into the chest, stapled into the muscles. You can then put a silicone implant into the pocket. The silicone implant is heavy and so there is a sling that keeps the breast elevated normally. This sling is made of plastic. This means the woman has two foreign bodies, plastic and silicone.
“We are developing the use of fish skin as a sling that will keep the breast elevated over half a year to a year. This skin will eventually be replaced by the woman’s own tissues when they are strong enough to keep the breast elevated.”
Furthermore, because there is no known risk of viral disease transmission, fish skin needs only minimal processing by Kerecis, preserving its structure and components.
“When I discovered these things, the first person I talked to about it, apart from my wife, was a patent attorney.”
Today, the Kerecis product journey starts with fish caught in the North Atlantic, off the township of Isafjordur, on Iceland’s northwest coast. Skins that would otherwise have been thrown away are sent to the company’s processing plant in the same town – where products are made for the rest of Europe, the US and other jurisdictions.
The continued presence of Kerecis in its homeland has helped to draw attention to the country’s growing prowess in health innovation. Sigurjonsson believes its emergence as the country’s first unicorn has also helped to change the mindset of investors.
“Iceland does not have a very developed investor community. Most investments in the past have been in real estate and traditional businesses. Companies on the Icelandic stock exchange have their values based on multiples of EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation].
“There has not been a big history of venture investments in Iceland. But, because people can see others making money now, there is now substantially more investment interest in start-ups.”
We met Kerecis CEO and founder Fertram Sigurjonsson at an event organised by Business Iceland on behalf of Reykjavik Science City.
