ZooBiotic’s plans for global growth get a boost

Mar 5 2008 by Sion Barry, Western Mail

SUPPLIER of maggot-based innovative wound care products to the healthcare industry, ZooBiotic has been boosted in its efforts at driving sales outside the UK.

The Bridgend company has achieved crucial ISO certification – a pivotal factor in implementing its strategy to replicate the business internationally.

ZooBiotic – one of the UK's first NHS spinout businesses – is a fully commercial operation with rapidly growing markets in larval therapy.

The company has achieved ISO: 9001: 2000, and ISO: 13485: 2003 (which covers medical device compliance).

The company’s chief executive, Dr Tim Coombs, said, “ISO 9001 certification is the most widely recognised standard for quality management in the world. This level of certification resonates internationally, and will be a vital tool in our global expansion plans.”

ZooBiotic aims to achieve wider global revenues by franchising its expertise, providing support for other countries to replicate its business in what it calls the “Starbucks” principle. Dr Coombs said, “Wherever you go in the world you will find a uniformity of quality in the Starbucks chain.

“Similarly, we can set up facilities that operate to our stringent standards throughout the world.”

Interest in larval therapy is growing. ZooBiotic now produces 600,000 maggots, and 1,500 dressings per month from its pharmaceutical production unit – supplying a client base of more than 4,000.

Its LarvE BioFOAM Dressing is revolutionary in that it is acceptable from an aesthetic viewpoint – as it contains the maggots within a pouch, but does not compromise the impressive success rate of wound cleansing with maggots.

Dr Coombs said, “Over the next five years we aim to bring the benefits of larval therapy to a wide audience internationally, and certification will play a significant part in achieving that.”

Two staff members were instrumental in steering ZooBiotic towards certification: Suzanne Morgan, quality and regulatory manager, whose previous roles include lead medical device auditor and technical reviewer with SGS UK and Alan Morgan, R&D and production director.

Dr Coombs said, “Achieving certification within six months of Suzanne taking up the post is a significant achievement.

“Along with Alan’s tremendous input, we have achieved our objective with remarkable speed and efficiency.

“As we are already at the cutting edge of research in the larval therapy arena, our intention is to broaden our product range, which is where Suzanne's immense experience in quality assurance and regulation, and Alan’s track record in R&D and production will be invaluable in enhancing our spectrum of innovative products.”

ZooBiotic operates from a purpose- built facility on Dunraven Business Park, and employs 25 people.

Maggot therapy has been successfully used in the treatment of leg ulcers, wounds associated with diabetes, pressure ulcers, and many other types of infected wounds.

Conventional treatments for these wounds can take months to achieve a successful outcome, but maggot therapy usually involves no more than one or two treatments, each lasting a maximum of five days.

Because maggot therapy acts far more quickly than conventional treatments, it can also reduce treatment times and the associated costs.

Evidence also suggests that it is successful in combating the hospital “super- bug”, MRSA.

An estimated 30,000 people have been treated with sterile maggots since the mid 1990s and the demand is growing rapidly throughout the world.