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CCC scores vital $700,000 ReCell order from Europe

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Fiona Wood's Clinical Cell Culture has secured a landmark $700,000 European order for ReCell, just one week after the spray-on-skin proponent got regulatory approval to market the unique tissue engineering kit on the Continent.

The order, the first from Europe, was 40 per cent bigger than the company had expected and underlines forecasts that ReCell will produce 90 per cent of London-based C3's revenue by June 2006.

The product will retail for an average price of $1500, but C3 is developing a cheaper product for high volume users and a do-it-yourself kit for regions, including India, Pakistan and parts of Africa.

Based on sales projections, C3 expects to be cash-flow positive in the next financial year.

ReCell has been developed for use in the treatment of small burns but C3 sees bigger opportunities in the field of cosmetics and the treatment of problems such as scars and uneven pigmentation.

It is preparing to seek approval to market ReCell in the US in the next four weeks and it plans to set up an office in Florida next month to service the world's biggest health-care market.

Chief executive Troels Jordansen, who was in Perth this week, said he was confident the company would secure FDA approval by the second half of the calendar year.

Mr Jordansen said C3 would focus initially on the burns market in select US States with a strategy to cover 70 per cent of the burns casualties in North America. In addition to selling directly through burns units, C3 is evaluating a joint venture with a cosmetic company.

If a deal is struck, C3's joint venture partner will undertake all the promotion of the C3 products to plastic surgeons and dermatologists.

Mr Jordansen said the feedback from doctors in the US was promising, with surgeons reporting they had between five and 20 patients a month who would be suitable for C3's technology.

"They are dealing with patients where there are no other alternatives, it is scars or this technology," Mr Jordansen said.

Meanwhile, Dr Wood is working with Curtin University to develop a new treatment for chronic wounds such as ulcers. The collaborative project is expected to cost $3 million over three years.

Clinical Cell Culture shares climbed 1.5¢ to 39.5¢ yesterday with more than 630,000 changing hands.