2016 North American Electroceutical Wound HealingNew Product Innovation Award
2016
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Contents Background and Company Performance ...................................................................... 3
Industry Challenges............................................................................................ 3
New Product Attributes and Customer Impact ........................................................ 3
Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 6
Significance of New Product Innovation ....................................................................... 7
Understanding New Product Innovation ....................................................................... 7
Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................. 8
Best Practice Award Analysis for Vomaris Innovations Inc. ............................................. 8
Decision Support Scorecard ................................................................................. 8
New Product Attributes ....................................................................................... 9
Customer Impact ............................................................................................... 9
Decision Support Matrix .................................................................................... 10
The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards .................... 11
Research Methodology ...................................................................................... 11
Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ............................................................................................................... 12
About Frost & Sullivan ............................................................................................ 13
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Background and Company Performance
Industry Challenges
The US advanced wound care technologies market is estimated to reach $3.25 billion in 2019 (per Frost & Sullivan analysis). Major advancements in wound healing include methods for either reducing infection or stimulating cell repair. Studies show that when compared to dry wounds, moist wounds heal faster, scar less, and cause autolytic debridement, prompting several developments in moist wound healing.
Healing of wounds - especially chronic wounds - can be delayed by several factors. In chronic wounds, the presence of bacteria can interfere in the wound healing process by causing an infection, which creates prolonged inflammation in the wound and delays healing. The bacteria in the wound often aggregate together in complex communities, and these colonies become embedded into extracellular polysaccharide matrices in the wound. Over a period of time, these bacterial colonies, also called biofilms, mature and develop protected microenvironments that are more resistant to conventional antimicrobial treatments. Silver is commonly used as a broad spectrum antimicrobial agent in wound dressings and is delivered either in the form of ions or a colloidal solution. Chronic wounds, however, can become quite difficult to heal because of the presence of a mature biofilm. With numerous pharmacological agents being used for the treatment of bacterial infection, Frost & Sullivan points out that multidrug-resistant bacteria are emerging, making treatment of chronic wounds even more challenging.
Frost & Sullivan feels that the current wound care market needs a novel solution that can provide antimicrobial protection to the wound site. To combat the challenges of multispecies biofilm and multidrug-resistant bacterial infection in the wounds, a non-pharmacological solution to the antimicrobial efficacy in wound healing is clearly needed.
New Product Attributes and Customer Impact
Match to Needs
Addressing the need to provide antimicrobial protection and a moist environment to the wound, Vomaris Innovations, specializing in emerging electroceutical technologies for the wound care market, has developed a revolutionary wound dressing —Procellera® Rx. This non-pharmacological wound dressing is based on microcurrent technology that aims to mimic the body’s physiological electrical signal that directs cell migration and re-epithelialization.
The company’s patented Advanced Microcurrent TechnologyTM is powered by an embedded matrix of silver and zinc moisture-activated microcell batteries that generate a sustained current in the physiologic range of 2 to 10 microamperes (less than 1 volt of electricity.) This voltage potential is similar to that occurring in the areas of skin injury in normal
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human tissue. These endogenous electrical fields help in epithelial cell migration into the affected region and enhance the rate of wound healing and antimicrobial activity.
The company claims that Procellera®, with its electroceutical action, kills a broad spectrum of harmful pathogens (gram positive and gram negative pathogens), including multidrug-resistant bacteria and biofilm-producing bacteria, thereby reducing the risk of infection.
Design
Vomaris has developed a portfolio of single layer (Procellera) and composite (Procellera Helix™) antimicrobial wound dressings all powered by Advanced Microcurrent Technology.
The composite dressings have an additional semi-occlusive outer adhesive layer that keeps the dressing in place and helps maintain a moist environment in the wound. The waterproof adhesive allows it to be worn throughout the day, and the outer adhesive layer provides flexibility and conformability for enhanced comfort and mobilization. The dressing has a high absorbent foam layer for absorbing the wound exudate.
Procellera® antimicrobial dressings are indicated for partial and full thickness wounds, including pressure/venous/diabetic ulcers, burns, surgical incisions, and donor and/or recipient graft sites. These dressings can be used alone or in combination with other wound healing modalities and can be used directly over liquid skin adhesives, staples, sutures, and butterfly sutures.
Quality
Vomaris’ products and technologies are supported by documented, reproducible data from scientific, biologic, and clinical research. Procellera’s advanced technology and unique biophysical mechanism of action have been validated in several clinical studies published in renowned peer reviewed journals such as Journal of Wound Care, Military Medical Research, Journal of Burn Care & Research, Journal of the American College of Clinical Wound Specialists, and Advances in Wound Care. To date, Vomaris has 13 published and 1 pending publications and over 60 peer-reviewed abstracts.
A recent study evaluating the anti-biofilm efficacy of electroceutical dressings showed that on wounds infected with both Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii, Procellera® dressings effectively disrupted biofilm, showing marked improvement in wound re-epithelialization and restored skin barrier function, when compared to control dressings. Various studies have demonstrated Procellera’s bioelectrical activity and efficacy against 6 antibiotic-resistant pathogens and mono- and multi-species biofilm-producing pathogens.
Vomaris has received 6 issued US patents, along with 5 granted international patents, and 9 additional patents pending. In addition to 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Procellera® has received FDA clearance for over-the-counter use for
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superficial wounds, including minor cuts, scrapes, irritations, abrasions, and blisters.
Reliability
Procellera® is the only non-pharmacological antimicrobial technology that is inspired by the body’s natural electrical healing process to jump start the healing process. The most commonly used antimicrobial dressing is silver dressing, where silver on contact with bacteria disrupts the bacterial membrane and kills it. However, with the development of bacterial resistance to silver, Frost & Sullivan points out that silver dressings are becoming obsolete in the wound care market.
Apart from silver, microorganisms are becoming resistant to several drugs, elements, and compounds. Interestingly, electrical energy has not yet generated resistant bacteria, indicating that Procellera® as an innovative solution is here to stay. Another advantage is that the dressing does not cause an increase of silver in the bloodstream. In addition to the antimicrobial effect, Procellera® was observed in studies to enhance cellular migration and re-epithelialization, crucial for the wound healing process.
Price/Performance Value
Wound management is quite costly. Studies have shown that ulcer management adds around US $9 billion to $13 billion to the direct yearly costs associated with diabetes itself. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the cost to treat a patient for hospital-acquired infections - such as surgical site infection (SSI) - could range from $12,000 to $35,000. Vomaris hopes that with the use of this unique dressing, it can reduce the amount of healing time needed, lower the readmission rate or a potential infection, and thereby reduce the overall health care costs significantly.
According to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Advances in Wound Care outlining the health economic benefits of Procellera®, Vomaris’ electroceutical dressing, in combination with another wound healing modality such as negative pressure wound treatment (NPWT), decreased the number of dressing changes and significantly reduced overall per-patient treatment cost by 20%, as compared to the control group. In addition, this randomized clinical trial showed that combining the treatment of electroceutical dressings with NPWT caused a decrease in the consumption of opioid analgesic pain medication. With the additional benefit of being cost efficient when used as an adjunct to NPWT, Vomaris’ novel wound healing solution shows great value for medical facilities and payers.
Brand Equity
Frost & Sullivan applauds the fact that Vomaris has truly established its brand value by offering the first electroceutical wound dressing to be approved by the FDA for use in partial and full thickness wounds such as pressure ulcers, venous ulcers, diabetic ulcers,
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burns, surgical incisions, and donor and/or recipient graft sites. Research on Procellera (titled Silver-zinc Redox-coupled Electroceutical Wound Dressing Disrupts Bacterial Biofilm) has received the Excellence in Translational and Regenerative Science Award by the Wound Healing Society. Vomaris’s Advanced Microcurrent TechnologyTM has been presented at various prestigious conferences - such as Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) and the Wound Healing Society spring conference. Its brand value has been strengthened by its exclusive global commercial and development partnership with a leader in orthopedic medical device industry, Arthrex, Inc. Procellera® is distributed as JumpStartTM by Arthrex in the orthopedic surgical market.
Conclusion
With Procellera®, Vomaris Innovations has pioneered a battery-in-a-bandage technology that is based on electrical energy to heal wounds.
The robust platform utilizes microcurrents to mimic the body’s own physiologic electric current generated during wound healing. The moisture-activated microcell batteries embedded in Procellera® generates microcurrents, which provides broad spectrum antimicrobial efficacy with improved cell migration. Frost & Sullivan thus recognizes Vomaris Innovations with the 2016 New Product Innovation Award.
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Significance of New Product Innovation
Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon continually introducing new products to the market, and successfully commercializing those products. For these dual goals to occur, a company must be best-in-class in three key areas: understanding demand, nurturing the brand, and differentiating from the competition.
Understanding New Product Innovation Innovation is about finding a productive outlet for creativity — for consistently translating ideas into high quality products that have a profound impact on the customer.
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Key Benchmarking Criteria For the New Product Innovation Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently evaluated two key factors — New Product Attributes and Customer Impact — according to the criteria identified below.
New Product Attributes Criterion 1: Match to Needs Criterion 2: Reliability Criterion 3: Quality Criterion 4: Positioning Criterion 5: Design
Customer Impact Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience
Criterion 5: Brand Equity
Best Practice Award Analysis for Vomaris Innovations, Inc. Decision Support Scorecard To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation; ratings guidelines are illustrated below.
RATINGS GUIDELINES
The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by New Product Attributes and Customer Impact (i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the definitions for each criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies.
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The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3.
DECISION SUPPORT SCORECARD FOR NEW PRODUCT INNOVATION AWARD
Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)
New Product Innovation New Product Attributes
Customer Impact
Average Rating
Vomaris Innovations, Inc. 9 9 9.0
Competitor 2 7 9 8.0
Competitor 3 8 7 7.5
New Product Attributes Criterion 1: Match to Needs Requirement: Customer needs directly influence and inspire the product’s design and positioning
Criterion 2: Reliability Requirement: The product consistently meets or exceeds customer expectations for consistent performance during its entire life cycle
Criterion 3: Quality Requirement: Product offers best-in-class quality, with a full complement of features and functionality
Criterion 4: Positioning Requirement: The product serves a unique, unmet need that competitors cannot easily replicate
Criterion 5: Design Requirement: The product features an innovative design, enhancing both visual appeal and ease of use
Customer Impact Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar offerings in the market
Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience Requirement: Customers feel like they are buying the most optimal solution that addresses both their unique needs and their unique constraints
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Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company’s product or service, and have a positive experience throughout the life of the product or service
Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality
Criterion 5: Brand Equity Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty
Decision Support Matrix Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard, analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at best-in-class levels.
DECISION SUPPORT MATRIX FOR NEW PRODUCT INNOVATION AWARD
High
Low
Low High
Cu
stom
er I
mp
act
New Product Attributes
Vomaris
Competitor 2
Competitor 3
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The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards
Research Methodology Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree-view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Too often, companies make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the 360-degree research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels.
360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN THE CHAOS
TechnologyObsolescence
DisruptiveTechnologies
NewApplications
CEO
Demographics
Needsand
PerceptionsSegmentation
BuyingBehavior
Brandingand
Positioning
CompetitiveBenchmarking
EmergingCompetition
CompetitiveStrategy
CapitalInvestments
Availabilityof
Capital
CountryRisk
EconomicTrends
CrowdSourcing
GrowthStrategies
CareerDevelopment
GrowthImplementation
IndustryEvolution
New VerticalMarkets
IndustryExpansion
IndustryConvergence
EmergingTechnologies
Smart Cities
Sustainability
New BusinessCultures
GeoPoliticalStability
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Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices
Frost & Sullivan Awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate Award candidates and assess their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are based on close adherence to this process.
STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT
1 Monitor, target, and screen
Identify Award recipient candidates from around the globe
Conduct in-depth industry research
Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies
Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria
2 Perform 360-degree research
Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline
Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners
Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria
Rank all candidates
Matrix positioning all candidates’ performance relative to one another
3
Invite thought leadership in best practices
Perform in-depth examination of all candidates
Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all
candidates Identify any information gaps
Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates
4 Initiate research director review
Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles
Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives
on candidates’ performance Update candidate profiles
Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper
5 Assemble panel of industry experts
Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders
Share findings Strengthen cases for
candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates
Refined list of prioritized Award candidates
6 Conduct global industry review
Build consensus on Award candidates’ eligibility
Hold global team meeting to review all candidates
Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all
eligible candidates
Final list of eligible Award candidates, representing success stories worldwide
7 Perform quality check
Develop official Award consideration materials
Perform final performance benchmarking activities
Write nominations Perform quality review
High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes
8 Reconnect with panel of industry experts
Finalize the selection of the best-practice Award recipient
Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner
Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria
9 Communicate recognition
Inform Award recipient of Award recognition
Present Award to the CEO Inspire the organization for
continued success Celebrate the recipient’s
performance
Announcement of Award and plan for how recipient can use the Award to enhance the brand
10 Take strategic action
Upon licensing, company may share Award news with stakeholders and customers
Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess Award’s role in future
strategic planning
Widespread awareness of recipient’s Award status among investors, media personnel, and employees
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About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com.