Plasmacure offers solution for healing chronic wounds
Plasmacure (Nijmegen/Eindhoven) develops and markets its PLASOMA cold plasma system to better treat chronic wounds. A new series of funding from a consortium with Topfonds Gelderland, NextGen Ventures, European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund and Credenti B.V. (a group of informal investors) enables Plasmacure to carry out clinical studies and to sell the product internationally. Oost NL is fund manager of Topfonds Gelderland.
"Every 30 seconds, someone, somewhere in the world loses a foot through amputation. More than 80% of these amputations are caused by diabetic foot wounds that do not heal. At Plasmacure, we envision a world where people no longer suffer from chronic wounds. The first results with PLASOMA are impressive, 60% of wounds have healed." says Bas Zeper, CEO and founder of Plasmacure. The company develops and markets PLASOMA - a medical device to stimulate wound healing using cold plasma. Cold plasma is created by adding energy to gas. It is very effective in killing bacteria and stimulating blood flow and cell growth. PLASOMA sends pulses to a disposable cold plasma pad, which creates cold plasma directly in the wound.
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Reducing costs
Treatment of complex wounds already places a burden of 2 billion euro a year on the Dutch healthcare budget. PLASOMA can reduce costs within wound care because wounds heal faster. The market for advanced wound care will continue to grow by about 5% a year, due to an increase in diabetes patients and the ageing population.
Investment
This investment round will allow Plasmacure to conduct clinical studies and sell PLASOMA to wound care centers and hospitals in several European countries. "This is an important step for us", says Zeper: "Large clinical studies can demonstrate the positive effect on wound healing in the most important types of chronic wounds. We are proud of the first results: 20 case studies show that 60% of the wounds - which were open for an average of 65 weeks - healed within 7 weeks with an average of 13 treatments. One wound was even over four years old."
Investors
Sven Kempers, investment manager Health at Oost NL: "Plasmacure has developed well in recent years. The first results of the case studies are promising. With our new investment we help the company enter the European market, so that more wound care centers and hospitals can benefit from PLASOMA. This contributes to well-being of patients and keeps healthcare affordable." Oost NL first invested in Plasmacure in 2018 from Topfonds Gelderland. In this new investment round, Oost NL provides funding from MKB Kredietfaciliteit Gelderland (Topfonds Gelderland).
NextGen Ventures also participated in the 2018 funding round. NextGen Ventures invests in knowledge-based companies that drive transformation in healthcare. Sandra Mayr, investment manager at NextGen Ventures, said, "Plasmacure's ambition in the area of wound care aligns perfectly with our ambition: providing patients with better, cost-effective care that is easily applied by the healthcare provider. Since our investment in 2016, Plasmacure’s team has shown promising results. We look forward to the confirmation of this in the clinical trial and a successful market launch."
Heidi Kakko, member of the EIC Fund Investment Committee, added: “We are glad to announce the EIC Fund support to Plasmacure enabling the company to further develop PLASOMA. The EIC Fund investment will bring this ground breaking medical device closer to the patients.”
European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund) is a breakthrough initiative of the European Commission to make direct equity and quasi-equity investments (between €500.000 and €15 million) in European high impact and deep tech start-ups and scale ups. The EIC Fund aims to fill a critical financing gap and its main purpose is to support companies in the development and commercialization of disruptive technologies. The Fund pays particular attention to the empowerment and support of female founders as well as the ambition to reduce the innovation divide among EU countries.
Bernhard Hoeksma, director at Credenti B.V. adds: “Our group of investors has affinity with the goal of Plasmacure: helping people with chronic wounds. That is the main reason why we were prepared to invest at an early stage. The latest results of the PLASOMA treatment are promising and convincing.” Credenti B.V. first invested in Plasmacure in 2018, together with Topfonds Gelderland.
Plasmacure in East Netherlands
Plasmacure's head office is located in Nijmegen, where the management and marketing & sales staff work. The manufacturer of the cold plasma pulser is Relitech from Nijkerk (GLD). A group of informal investors from the eastern part of the Netherlands is also investing in this round.
