KeriCure Inc., a Wesley Chapel company, has secured a patent that is expected to open new doors for partnerships with pharmaceutical and medical device companies.
“Our foundation of the company was actually built around this nanoparticle drug delivery technology that I helped to create at the University of South Florida,” said Kerriann Greenhalgh, who operates the company from her Wesley Chapel home.
(B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)
The company, which launched in 2011, has been offering consumer products to help promote the healing of cuts and wounds on people and pets, through liquid bandages sprayed on the skin.
The polymer retains its elasticity, protecting the wound and allowing the cut to heal.
The products for people are sold under the names Natural Seal Liquid Bandage, Natural Seal and Natural Seal on the Go, and are available at Publix, Kroger, Price Choppers, Marsh and Meijer, and in natural product stores throughout the United States.
The pet products are known as Tough Seal for Pets and Champion Seal, and are available online and at some feed stores.
The company also has a professional line of liquid bandage products, under the name of KeriCure’s Advanced Seal — Rx for Medical Use. That formulation is used by physicians in various cosmetic, dermatological, burn, wound care and post-surgical applications.
With a patent granted in June, Greenhalgh expects her unique polymer to be used in a much broader array of applications.
The patent “gives us the opportunity to talk to larger pharmaceutical companies — who have products, drugs, bioactives that they want to deliver topically — and tell them we have a great, FDA-cleared system in place now, and that we can incorporate their drug into and provide very sustained release with our product,” Greenhalgh explained.
“One area that we’re looking at is in the anti-cancer area,” she said.
“We would incorporate a very well-known anti-cancer drug into our polymer system,” she said. Or, her product could be used to apply radiation seeds topically.
Patients could benefit from her company’s product, she said.
“The beauty of this is that they wouldn’t have to be getting exposed to massive amounts of radiation. It would be extremely targeted,” she said. “So, you would get rid of a lot of the side effects that happen with radiation.
“That is a very serious opportunity,” she said.
KeriCure is currently talking to various companies that have an interest in its technology, Greenhalgh said, including 3M. “They have a couple of projects that they’re interested in having us collaborate on.”
Greenhalgh said she launched the company as a consumer products company because it was the smoothest way to raise revenue.
“We really want to grow in the biotech space and create products for advanced wound care, like chronic wounds and burn wounds,” Greenhalgh said. “We’re actually in talks with a couple of large wound care companies, as a private label. We do have a very interesting opportunity in front of us right now.”
“We’ve just been asked to go to CVS and present to its private label group of buyers, so they’re interested in bringing the product on as a CVS product,” she said.
“We just got picked up by Cardinal Health. They’re the largest medical product distributor in the U.S.,” she said, adding her company will be attending Cardinal Health’s trade show in Las Vegas this month.
It also is presenting at Winn-Dixie’s local buyer division this week.
Greenhalgh grew up in New Tampa and graduated from Wharton High School before obtaining her bachelor’s degree and doctorate from USF.
The scientist lives with her husband, Daniel Opp, and their son, Nolan Opp, near Quail Hollow.
Published July 15, 2015
