Health Economics Savings for Recell

The following open-access paper was published online on 22 January 2024 by a group of researchers including Dr Jeffrey Carter. It includes some very significant findings on cost savings from the use of Recell based on some large data samples.

"Autologous Skin Cell Suspension for Full-Thickness Skin Defect Reconstruction: Current Evidence and Health Economic Expectations"
Ref: https://rdcu.be/dBPsj (copy this into your browser)

I have summarised here, three of the findings from the paper (note that ASCS is their terminology for Recell):

1. For patients with FT injuries, HCRU reductions ranged from 0.42–28.2 days (2–47%) for LOS and 0.2–2.8 (17–74%) for number of grafting surgeries for 10% to 40% TBSA wounds. As in the first BEACON analysis, rehabilitation costs were reduced by more than 20% (22.4%).
Total cost savings ranged from $2130 to $311,652 (1–43%) for 10% and 40% TBSA wounds, respectively. On average, ASCS was estimated to reduce overall burn center costs by $15.8 million and per-patient costs by $79,500 (a 17.4% reduction) for a hypothetical burn center with an average of 341 patients.

2. In one analysis, which examined 81 matched patients with less than 10% to less than 49% TBSA wounds, LOS was lower with ASCS ± STSG than STSG alone for almost all (four of five) TBSA intervals examined [16]. Across all patient matches (N = 81), a 13.2% reduction in LOS was
observed. This reduction in hospital stay was associated with a bed cost savings of $25,864 per ASCS-treated patient; overall cost savings
were $36,949 per patient.

3. In a second analysis, which focused on patients with small burns (< 20% TBSA), showed similar LOS and cost benefits with use of ASCS ± STSG over STSG [14]. Across 64 matched patients, a 10.2% reduction in LOS was observed with ASCS ± STSG, leading to bed cost savings of $15,587 per patient; overall cost savings were $22,268 per patient.

IMO, these kinds of savings from using Recell will underpin rapidly growing sales for a very long time yet. This paper does not even consider the even greater benefits likely to flow from the use of Recell in conjunction with polymers, which is also under research by Dr Jeffrey Carter and others (see several recent posts on this topic).