Indigenous tissue engineering scaffold for healing skin wounds gets DCGI’s nod

The animal-derived membrane for rapid skin healing

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) on June 13 announced that its indigenously developed animal tissue engineering scaffold, a low-cost biomedical device, which can heal skin wounds rapidly has received approval from the Drug Controller General of India.

The indigenous tissue engineering scaffold is pegged to bring down the cost of healing skin wounds with minimum scarring.

“It is expected that with the introduction of Cholederm to the Indian market, the treatment cost can be reduced from Rs 10,000 to Rs 2,000 making it affordable to the common man. Moreover, the technology for recovering extracellular matrix from the gall bladder is not available to others and it gives a fair chance for competition in the international market,” a government release added.

According to the health ministry, the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), an autonomous institute under DST, became the first institution in the country to develop Class D medical devices that satisfy all statutory requirements of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

“The concept of using animal-derived materials as advanced wound care products is not new. However, indigenous technology was so far not available for fabricating quality products that satisfy the requirements of the Drugs Controller General. Therefore, such products were imported making them expensive,” the DST said in a release.

The researchers of the division of experimental pathology in the biomedical technology wing of the institute developed an innovative technology for preparing tissue engineering scaffolds from mammalian organs.