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Advanced BioHealing to Showcase Dermagraft® at Diabetic Foot Global Conference


Westport, CT – March 10, 2010 – Advanced BioHealing, Inc. (ABH), a leader in commercializing the promise of regenerative medicine, announced that it will host three events featuring the Company’s lead product, Dermagraft® at this year’s Diabetic Foot Global Conference (DF Con) 2010, the largest annual interdisciplinary diabetic foot conference in North America.

Dermagraft is an FDA-approved bio-engineered skin substitute that repairs damaged tissue and supports the body’s natural healing process in patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). DFUs affect 15 to 25 percent of diabetes patients during their lifetime, putting them at risk for lower limb amputation or death if not treated properly. Dermagraft is also the focus of an ongoing pivotal trial in subjects with venous leg ulcers.

DF Con 2010 is focused on bringing together physicians and other clinicians, researchers, scientists and limb salvage experts committed to improving standards of care in the treatment of DFUs, with the goal of reducing amputations due to the disease.

“There is much work that remains to be done for the treatment of DFUs, but we have already made great strides,” said Dean Tozer, Senior Vice President of ABH. “Through events such as DF Con 2010, we hope to continue to educate medical professionals on ways to effectively manage DFUs and increase patient compliance. Ideally, this will ultimately result in a greater standard of living for these patients and a return to normalcy after their DFU heals.”

ABH will host the following events at DF Con 2010:

  • Breakfast Symposium: Optimizing the Standard of Care for Diabetic Foot Ulcers.  Robert Kirsner, MD, PhD, will address the evolution of DFU treatment and the subsequent formation of a new standard of care, for which Dermagraft is central, and how doctors can implement this standard in their practice. The event will be held on Friday, March 19 from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. in Studios D and E of the Hollywood Ballroom on the Mezzanine Level. Dr. Kirsner is a Professor and Vice Chairman in the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and Director of the University of Miami/Cedars Wound Center.
  • Hands-On Workshop: Wound Closure. Hosted by Lee C. Rogers, DPM, and Nicholas J. Bevilacqua, DPM, Associate Medical Directors of the Amputation Prevention Center at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, Calif., the workshop will be held Saturday, March 20 from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the Hollywood Ballroom Studio D. At the workshop, pieces of Dermagraft will be available for attendees to practice preparing and applying to a rubber foot ulcer wound. To date, nearly 200,000 pieces of Dermagraft have been supplied to over 1,000 wound care centers and outpatient clinics nationwide.
  • Poster Presentation. Robert A. Warriner, III. M.D., FACA, FCCP, FCCWS, ABPM/UHM; Matthew Cardinal, ME; and Robert J. Snyder, DPM, CWS will present a poster abstract titled, “Delayed Progress in Wound Area Reduction After Four Weeks of Standard Care Predicts Failure to Heal Diabetic Foot Ulcers.” To better understand events that precede the failure to heal DFUs, despite early progress, investigators examined wound area measurements in 120 subjects who had achieved at least 50 percent area reduction of their DFUs following four weeks of conventional treatment. The abstract sheds light on the sub-clinical events that impact the healing of DFUs. The poster will be available for viewing throughout the duration of DF Con 2010. To view the complete abstract, visit: http://www.dfcon.com/abstracts.html.

DF Con 2010 will be held March 18-20, 2010 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles. ABH will be exhibiting at Booth #304 in the Exhibitor Grand Ballroom.

About Advanced BioHealing, Inc.
Advanced BioHealing develops and commercializes living cell therapies that repair damaged human tissue and enable the body to heal itself. A privately held company with more than 250 employees, Advanced BioHealing maintains its corporate office in Westport, CT, a 70,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in La Jolla, CA, and a research facility in Nashville, TN. To meet Advanced BioHealing’s executives and learn more about the Company, please visit the Company’s web site at www.ABH.com.   

About Dermagraft®
Dermagraft is a bio-engineered skin substitute that assists in restoring damaged tissue and supports the body’s natural healing process. It is FDA approved to treat diabetic foot ulcers and is the focus of an ongoing pivotal trial in subjects with venous leg ulcers (VLUs) to assess the product’s safety and efficacy in the promotion of healing VLUs. To date, nearly 200,000 applications of Dermagraft have been administered in over 1,000 wound care centers and outpatient clinics nationwide. For videos of Dermagraft in action, case studies, research and more, visit www.Dermagraft.com.

About Diabetic Foot Ulcers
In 2007, 23.6 million people, or 7.8% of the American population, had diabetes. Referred to as the “epidemic of our time” by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, incidence of diabetes is expected to increase 165% by 2050. The World Health Organization estimates 171 million people have diabetes globally and that number is expected to double by 2030. As a chronic medical condition among many diabetes patients, it is estimated that 15-25% will develop a foot ulcer in their lifetime, putting them at a 14-24% risk for lower limb amputation, and a 45% chance of death within five years if not managed properly. Also generating a significant financial impact, each new incidence of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) in the U.S. costs nearly $40,000 to treat in the first two years. In the U.S. and Europe combined, DFU incidence is estimated to be between 1.7 to 2.5 million annually. Risk of death from unhealed neuropathic ulcers like DFUs is greater than both breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.

Media Contacts:

  • Lindsey Hart
    • Advanced BioHealing
    • lhart@abh.com
    • Direct: (773) 697-3838
    • Cell: (206) 335-0114
  • Mike Lizun