LifeNet Health and Soluble Systems Announce Partnership to Launch TheraSkin(TM)

Important New Therapy designed to jumpstart healing, saving limbs and lives

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., March 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Soluble Systems, LLC and the Skin and Wound Allograft Institute (SWAI), a wholly owned subsidiary of LifeNet Health, have signed a noteworthy agreement to launch TheraSkin™, a biologically active human skin allograft designed to jumpstart healing in chronic and acute wounds.

TheraSkin™ represents a major new entry into the advanced biologics wound care market. Growing at better than 15 percent per year, the advanced biologics market is one of the fastest growing segments of the $5 billion global wound care market.

TheraSkin™ is a cryo-preserved human skin allograft with both epidermis and dermis layers. When applied to a wound that is not healing properly, TheraSkin™ can jumpstart the healing process. TheraSkin™ provides a supply of growth factors, cytokines and collagen to promote wound healing. TheraSkin™ is a superior alternative to Live Skin Equivalent (LSE) products currently used to help heal chronic wounds.  Like LSE's, TheraSkin™ provides necessary growth factors and cytokines. Unlike LSE's, TheraSkin™ provides a large quantity of essential collagens in appropriate ratios to support healing.

Importantly, the launch of TheraSkin™ provides health care practitioners a new weapon in the battle to reduce health care costs. Depending on size, TheraSkin™ fees are 50 percent to 70 percent less than LSE's now on the market and can ultimately save the national healthcare system hundreds of millions of dollars.

Allan Staley, President of Soluble Systems, LLC comments, "TheraSkin™ is a major addition to our product line and is synergistic to TheraGauze™, our line of advanced polymer moisture regulating wound dressings.  With TheraSkin™ we are able to extend Soluble Systems proven healing technologies to a larger group of high-need patients."

"We are committed to working with Soluble Systems to bring this life and limb saving treatment to patients in need around the world. We're honored to be a part of this medical advancement that will be able to restore health to many patients who suffer with chronic wounds," said Rony Thomas, LifeNet Health President and CEO.

TheraSkin™ has been successfully applied to thousands of patients, including patients at six Veterans Administration Hospitals, the National Institutes of Health Hospital, and a large number of private hospitals.  A significant number of clinical studies have been conducted in multiple sites and countries that prove the safety and clinical efficacy of TheraSkin™.

About Soluble Systems, LLC: Soluble Systems, LLC is the manufacturer and distributor of a line of advanced wound care dressings under the brand name TheraGauze™. Patented Skin Moisture Rebalancing Technology (SMRT) enables TheraGauze™ to regulate moisture differentially across a wound bed and to aid in wound healing without maceration. TheraGauze is manufactured in a certified clean room environment pursuant to FDA regulations in Hampton, Virginia. Corporate offices are located in Newport News, Virginia. For additional information about Soluble Systems, TheraGauze™ and TheraSkin™, visit www.solublesystems.com.

About SWAI and LifeNet Health: SWAI, the Skin and Wound Allograft Institute, is a wholly owned non-profit subsidiary of LifeNet Health.  It was formed in 2008 to provide high quality bio-implants for patients with acute burns, traumatic injuries and chronic wounds.  The Institute continually strives to be a leader in bio-implant research and discover new therapies to improve the lives of patients that have suffered a debilitating burn, traumatic injury or chronic non-healing wound. LifeNet Health, a non-profit global leader in regenerative medicine, is the world's largest provider of bio-implants and organs for transplantation whose mission is saving lives and restoring health by advancing the field of tissue engineering.  For additional information about SWAI and LifeNet Health, visit www.swai.org and www.lifenethealth.org.

SOURCE LifeNet Health