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Zheleznogorsk

Non-woven medical dressings

Title

Development of a production facility for Collahit material for medical and cosmetic applications.

Objectives

To expand and improve an existing production facility for Collahit material to meet demand for medical and cosmetic applications in Russia and elsewhere.

Summary

The Joint Venture OOO Collahit is seeking to expand and improve its existing production facility for Collahit material in Zheleznogorsk, so as to double its output and provide 25 jobs. Collahit is a material which is manufactured from Chitosan, a naturally-occurring biopolymer (contained in crab's claws etc) and Collagen, a fibrous protein (obtained as a byproduct of the processing of cattle hides) which is combined with other chemicals (glutaraldehyde, furagin) in a process patented by OOO Erlon (one of the partners in the OOO Collahit Joint Venture) to make medical/cosmetic dressings.

These dressings have been found in a number of small-scale clinical trials to have favourable anti-bacterial properties, and to assist in the healing of wounds, burns, surgical lesions, pressure sores, skin diseases etc. There is also evidence for the effectiveness of Collahit as a cosmetic treatment for ageing skin (wrinkle limitation etc).

There is currently a well-developed international market for medical dressings, with some 10 suppliers in Russia, and many more in Germany and the US. Most of these supply conventional (ie woven fabric) dressings, normally impregnated with some material such as sodium alginate or collagen. Collahit can supply dressings at a significantly lower cost, and claims superior medical properties. It currently has a very small market share (producing some 40,000 dressings/month) and it believes (on the basis of a limited market survey) that it can easily double its sales by making use of four established Moscow distributors for such products. Overall, the demand for dressings is rising in Russia, due to the increasing incidence of diabetes and accidents. As regards the cosmetic application, Collahit estimate that 5% of women in Moscow use collagen masks, and that they could easily capture 0.1% of this market (ie 12,000 masks pa). Their Business Plan indicates that if the proposed improvements can be made to the existing production facility, they can expect to make sales rising to £1M pa over a 5-year period.