Surgical sealants are typically used after a surgery or a traumatic injury, to bind or hold external tissue such as skin as well as internal tissue such as blood vessels. The key types of surgical sealants are fibrin sealants, synthetic agents, collagen-based compounds and tissue adhesive glues such as glutaraldehyde glues and hydrogels. Among these, fibrin sealants have broad applications throughout the medical community. Recently, a great deal of research and innovation has focused on collagen compounds and hydrogels.
Participants in the surgical sealants market include both large public companies which operate across other segments of the healthcare industry and more specialized "pure-play" companies. Four companies profi led in this report are publicly traded and have a diversified product mix: Cryolife, Omrix, Vascular, and Zymogenetics. One additional public company, Haemacure, focuses exclusively on sealants. The remaining six companies also focus exclusively on sealants but, unlike Haemacure, are private.
Five of the profiled companies make products in the fibrin sealant categories. Additionally, Omrix, Cryolife and Haemacure have invested in R&D for applications based on protein extraction for tissue engineering and immunotherapy. Three have hydrogel-based polymer products, and each of these received FDA approval or a CE mark (an EU health and safety certification) in 2006 and 2007.
Most large public companies operate in multiple product segments and have grown through acquisition of manufacturing and distribution licenses or acquisition of smaller firms. In Section 6 forty-five recent transactions are detailed, including private placements and eleven merger/acquisition transactions.
Vascular Solutions raised $20.9 million in 2007, Omrix raised $99.7 million in 2006 and Zymogenetics raised $126.9 million in 2005. In 2007, Neomend raised $6.0 million and Vivostat raised $9.5 million, both in private placements. In 2008, Haemacure raised $12.5 million through a private placement to fund new product development and Cryolife secured a credit facility with GE Healthcare financial services for $15.0 million.