Holista Enter Medical-Grade Collagen Market

03 Apr 2017 --- Holista is set to enter the medical-grade collagen market after announcing that it will supply collagen made from skins of Australian sheep and lambs exclusively to units of Australia’s Keneric Medical Supplies Pty Ltd.

Keneric will develop products targeted at the multi-billion US dollar global medical collagen market.

As part of the agreement with Keneric, which owns the Texas-based advanced wound care manufacturer Keneric Healthcare Inc, and Los Angeles-based Molecular GPS Technologies, Holista expects to ship the first 10-kg medical-grade collagen, valued at over A$140,000, from its plant in Collie, Western Australia, starting in April 2017.

Holista will supply collagen made from sheep skins that are free of disease or prions to the US facility of Keneric Healthcare, a world leader in wound care dressings.

Molecular Express, a subsidiary of Molecular GPS which specializes in wound management medical devices and life sciences research and development, will use its proprietary technology and know-how to produce medical-grade collagen by removing certain endotoxins from the skins.

Australian sheep grade is certified by the US Department of Agriculture to be free from disease. Among sources of mammalian collagen (animals being warm blooded like human beings), collagen from sheep does not have the religious or cultural sensitivities compared to collagen from cows (shunned by Hindus and Buddhists) or pigs (shunned by certain religious groups).

The use of ovine collagen can also avoid the potential of “mad cow” disease or avian diseases (associated with chickens).

Until now Holista has only produced ovine collagen for nutritional and cosmetic applications, having commenced in 2010. Under the latest agreement Holista will fix its sale price of collagen to Keneric from now until the year 2023.

Holista will also be entitled to royalties and share of revenue once Keneric’s sales of medicalgrade collagen crosses certain agreed milestones.

Dr. Gordon Wood, President of Keneric Healthcare, said: “Medical grade collagen made from high purity Australian sheep has tremendous potential.”

“We are confident of the quality of collagen from Holista and will apply our own technology to develop products that meet the needs of the US and global medical markets.”

“We have a well-established international distribution channel which has shown interest in the collagen-based wound care products. We anticipate FDA approvals for the first product line in 2017.”

Dr. Rajen Manicka, Chairman and CEO of Holista, added: “This is a landmark agreement for Holista as medical-grade collagen has the highest requirements and the highest value for us.”

“The potential is hugely significant. We thank Keneric and Molecular GPS for their commitment to this partnership.”

Mr. Daniel O’Connor, Executive Director of Holista, who played an instrumental role in negotiating the multi-party, multi-jurisdictional agreement, said, “This agreement validates the years of research and development at our plant in Collie.”

“Holista will set high standards to produce the purest form of collagen from disease-free Australian sheep which will go towards advancing global medical science.”

Gary Fujii, Ph.D., President of Molecular GPS – the company that worked with the Holista team to reduce the endotoxins to make it a viable medical grade product, said, “We have been impressed with the quality of the ovine collagen and the purity after using our proprietary process for removing endotoxins to low levels.”

“We anticipate that prion-free collagen for medical applications can be produced for use as a wound care additive, and in gels and injectables for global markets.”