Estonian deep tech startup Nanordica Medical raises 1.75M€ to treat severe wounds

Nanordica Medical, an Estonian MedTech company and member of the Tehnopol HealthTech Community, has raised 1.75M€ to enter the market with first-in-class wound care products based on Premotiv^TM nanotechnology preventing infection and promoting wound closure. The round was led by Estonian fund Specialist VC, with participation from Superangel and Amalfi.

The funds will be used for finalizing regulatory approval, conducting a multicenter clinical trial, and bringing to the market Nanordica Medical’s first wound care product, advanced antibacterial wound dressing, to treat severe wounds.

100M patients suffer from chronic wounds such as diabetic foot, venous leg and pressure ulcers. Moreover, the prevalence is increasing by 12% annually due to the ageing of the population and the increase in underlying diseases like diabetes and obesity. That said, 67% of diabetic foot ulcers won’t heal within 12 weeks using current solutions. 1M amputations worldwide are caused annually by these wounds, and most of them are related to poorly managed bacterial colonization and infection of wounds. As a result, the 5-year mortality rate for diabetic foot ulcers is 30.5% being comparable to the 5-year pooled mortality for all reported cancer types (32%) (Armstrong et al., 2020).

Patients with infected wounds are typically treated with systemic antibiotics or topical antibacterials such as silver ion-based dressings or ointments. The Nanordica Medical’s team discovered that by combining copper with silver nanoparticles, bacterial infection can be inactivated up to 8x better compared to traditional antibacterial solutions, whereas the effect is achieved at remarkably low concentrations that are safe to human skin cells. The findings were published in the reputable scientific journal Scientific Reports (Vasiliev et al., 2023).

Further embedding of copper and silver nanoparticles into fibers mimicking cellular matrix supports human cell growth and thus, wound closure. Combining these nano- and fiber technologies, Nanordica Medical developed the first-in-class wound dressings aiming to prevent clinical infection and promote wound closure simultaneously.

A randomized controlled trial of developed wound dressing carried out on 30 patients with infected diabetic foot ulcers showed no wound dressing-related adverse events and consistently better results in nearly all relevant efficacy endpoints, such as the wound area size (WAS), the wound bacterial load and quality of life scores compared to competing widely used Ag ion-based wound dressing. WAS decreased in both groups, but the reduction was almost two-fold greater in the Nanordica Medical’s group than in the group of competing wound dressing.

“We achieved a crucial milestone by demonstrating the safety and efficacy of our advanced wound dressing in patients with the most challenging wounds, diabetic foot ulcers“, stated co-founder and CEO of Nanordica Medical Olesja Bondarenko. “Our next goal is to get the product to the market and in the hands of patients”.

In the next step, Nanordica Medical’s team is planning to confirm these exciting results on a larger study population. A multicentered study involving 170 patients with diabetic foot ulcers is planned to start in Q2 2024. This will be one of the largest studies of its kind, paving the path to the inclusion of Nanordica Medical’s wound care products into the reimbursement and treatment guidelines. “Planned clinical trial will add valuable data for taking care of patients with diabetic foot ulcers”, stated Prof. Dr. José Luis Lázaro Martínez, the Chair of the Diabetic Foot Committee of European Wound Management Association and Coordinator / Principal Investigator of the multicentered trial.

“We were inspired by the extraordinary determination and resilience of Nanordica Medical’s founder team. The company’s innovative wound care solution has the potential to positively impact the lives of chronic wound patients across the world”, says Gerri Kodres, the Founder Partner of Specialist VC.

Nanordica Medical’s first product for veterinary use Ravimus Vet was launched in 2023, and the human product is planned to launch in 2025.

About Nanordica Medical

Nanordica Medical is a spin-off of the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics (Estonia). On a mission to address the significant issue of chronic wound healing, their first product is an advanced antibacterial wound dressing. Nanordica Medical’s innovative nanotechnological solution stems from the scientific discovery of the co-founders revealing that the combination of copper with silver nanoparticles significantly enhances the antibacterial efficacy of both components and improves wound healing. The company was founded in 2019 by scientists Olesja Bondarenko PhD, Anna-Liisa Kubo PhD, Dr. Grigory Vasiliev PhD, and joined by business co-founder Meelis Kadaja, PhD, MBA in 2023. Nanordica Medical is a member of the Tehnopol HealthTech Community.