Tissue Therapies’ Novel Platform
February 2008
Tissue Therapies’ Novel Platform
Interview with Steven Mercer
Tissue Therapies’ Novel Platform
In this interview, Fintan Walton talks to Steven Mercer, CEO of Tissue Therapies. They begin with a discussion of the origin of the company, which was established to commercialise research developed at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Steven explains in detail the company’s platform technology, VitroGro®, its application in therapeutics and tissue culture media, and its versatility. The discussion then covers the worldwide sales and distribution agreement that Tissue Therapies made with Invitrogen in 2007, including the revenues that the company is entitled to from Invitrogen. The patent protection that applies to VitroGro is outlined, in particular the broadness of the cover of the family of patents. Steven then talks about a recombinant protein based on VitroGro technology being developed by the company for diabetic venous and pressure ulcers. The interview concludes with his ideas on VitroGro’s commercial potential.
About Steven Mercer
Dr Mercer worked as a Managing Director of Mercy Tissue Engineering, a successful tissue engineering company with commercial operations in Melbourne and Singapore. He has had a successful career with multinational companies, including 6 years with Smith & Nephew as General Manager, Smith & Nephew Surgical, during which he successfully grew Smith & Nephew Surgical in terms of sales per employee, profit per employee and market share. Before that, Dr Mercer had 7 years as a health industry specialist with IBM.
In addition to Dr Mercer’s extensive commercial experience in healthcare and biotechnology, he is a Registered Medical Practitioner (Australia and US) and a former Surgical Registrar. Among his commercial achievements, Dr Mercer managed the commercialisation of the first (Australian) Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)-approved human cell biotechnology laboratory in Australia, including securing the licensing of living cell implants for human use, and managing rapid growth in sales and profit derived from the facility.
About Tissue Therapies
Tissue Therapies is an Australian company developing biomedical technologies for wound healing, tissue and various cell culture applications. The company has worldwide exclusive rights to commercialise VitroGro®, a platform technology developed by tissue engineering experts at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for enhancing cell growth, protein expression and cell migration. VitroGro is a patented, defined, set of protein complexes that produce a high rate of cell replication, protein expression and cell migration, both in vitro and in vivo, without the use of fetal bovine serum (FBS) or serum derivatives. Based on the platform technology, Tissue Therapies is developing more effective medical treatments for wounds and burns, tissue regeneration, integration of orthopaedic and medical implants, and other applications such as cosmeceuticals. Tissue Therapies also provides cell culture reagents to enhance the growth of cells for emerging cell-based therapies, along with research and industrial cell culture markets internationally.
