Challenge
The number of burn wounds and chronic wounds is significant worldwide and expected to increase further due to the aging population. Chronic wounds include e.g. the well known open leg and diabetic foot. A substantial proportion of these wounds have necrotic tissue. These wounds require removal of the necrotic tissue, which is called debridement, to enable the wound to heal. There are multiple ways of debridement: surgical, mechanical (with the use of water), maggots and enzymatic (with the use of proteolytic enzymes). Most of them are expensive, little effective or very unpleasant and painful.
Opportunity
Current debridements all have their disadvantages. Surgical and mechanical debridement require expensive staff and an operating theater, and is painful for the patient. Maggots are expensive and not patient friendly. And current enzymatic debriders options are expensive and are very painful for the patient. Also efficacy is often an issue.
Solution
SERDA – Stable Enzymatic Rapid Debriding Agent – offers an enzymatic wound debrider that shows fast speed of debridement, ease of use, high level of stability, and low-moderate irritation potential. SERDA is a hydrogel containing a proteolytic enzyme. The proteolytic enzyme selectively digests the necrotic tissue/eschar which is composed of denatured matrix proteins (collagen, fibrin, etc.), removing the necrotic tissue and leaving the healthy tissue intact. This way the wound has the possibility to heal.
Status
SERDA therapeutics was founded in 2020 as a spin-off from one of the leading wound care companies Smith & Nephew and NLC, the European Healthtech Venture Builder. Smith & Nephew granted an exclusive license on its pre-clinically developed product to SERDA therapeutics. SERDA is developing a proprietary best-in-class fast and effective therapeutic product for wound debridement in treatment of severe burn injuries and chronic ulcers, like pressure ulcer, open leg and diabetic foot.
SERDA submitted the IND with the FDA and expects to start human clinical studies in Q2 2023. In collaboration with the Metis Foundation, SERDA is planning to perform a Phase 1 Clinical Trial Utilizing SN514 for Enzymatic Debridement of Burns, which will be supported by the United States Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) under Contract No. W81XWH22C0143.
Meet the team
Lucio van Rooijen
CEO
35+ years of experience in Life Science industries across a range of therapeutic indications, business models and molecular mechanisms. Following a multidisciplinary international career in a top Pharma he held a number of general manager and CEO roles in biotech and diagnostics companies, service providers and mid-tier pharma companies and supported numerous early stage companies in business and corporate development and fundraising. Lucio brings hands-on experience in research, development, marketing, sales, licensing, fund-raising and company management. He managed the start-up and growth of several companies. He is driven to bring innovations to commercial success and benefit of the health and well-being of patients.
Gábor Heltovics
Venture Partner
Gábor joined NLC in June 2022. In his most recent endeavour, he was the CEO of a virtual speciality biopharmaceutical company, Tavanta Therapeutics. Under Gábor’s guidance, Tavanta secured over $55 million in funding and grew from a 2-person company to an organisation with 5 pivotal clinical stage compounds for major indications such as oncology and pain, as well as an innovative pre-clinical pipeline following closely in their footsteps. Gábor will apply his experience at NLC as a venture partner to build ventures and advance health.