Wound-Care Products Develop a Sweet Taste

NEWS TRENDS

Although honey-based treatments have been around for centuries, mainstream medicine has increasingly adopted wound-care products that use the natural sweetener. Good clinical results and a better understanding of the soothing and healing effect of sugars are the biggest drivers for the renewed interest in honey, according to Mary Anne Crandall.

Crandall wrote a report for Kalorama Information (New York City) that looked at the global wound-care market in general. Among the strongest trends in the $12.3 billion industry was the use of honey-based products.

“One of the biggest problems in wound care is infection,” says Crandall. “[It] interferes with healing, so finding other methods to help retard bacterial growth is the focus at this point. The honey does this because of the antibacterial properties in the substance.”

Honey produces hydrogen peroxide, which stimulates new cell and blood vessel growth. It also reduces inflammation and swelling and helps to shed dead tissue.

The type of honey used in wound-care products comes from the manuka plant (also called the Leptospermum), a shrub native to New Zealand and Australia. Derma Sciences Inc. (Princeton, NJ) received FDA approval for the first honey-based dressing in the United States last summer. The company gets manuka honey from its partner, New Zealand–based Comvita.

Other companies that are using manuka honey in wound-care products include Mölnlycke Health Care (Göteborg, Sweden) and Advancis Medical Ltd. (Nottingham, UK).

Aside from the increased use of honey, one of the strongest trends in wound care is the development of products for the aging population. Other considerations focus on reimbursement issues and function. As a practitioner in Medford, OR, Crandall has seen an increased focus on tailoring the selection of a product on a per-patient basis, rather than using the same product on every patient.

Reimbursement of honey-based products has proven to be a hurdle for manufacturers. “As more of these sophisticated dressings come on the market, they do work and really provide good medicine for patients,” says Crandall. “However, insurance companies are reluctant to authorize these products just because of the cost.” As a result, companies have conducted more of their own research and development to provide the clinical information that aims to prove the superiority of their product.

Despite reimbursement issues, Crandall expects an ongoing dynamic product pipeline in the wound-care market. “I think, as a whole in the wound-care industry, there's nothing that you can say is really fantastic and works 100% of the time,” she says. “I think we're still looking for that and wanting to improve on the products that we have.”

To obtain a copy of World Wound Care Markets 2008, contact Kalorama Information at www.kaloramainformation.com.

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