Cardium Reports Non-Healing Wounds Continue to Challenge Patients and Healthcare...(economics Diabetic foot ulce...),Health

Diabetic foot ulcers affect about 15% of the almost 24 million diabetic patients in the United States, or 3.6 million people. Each year, over 1.3 million patients in the U.S. develop diabetic foot ulcers. Of these patients, 6 percent will be hospitalized due to infection or other ulcer-related complications. The cost of diabetic ulcers to the U.S. healthcare system is approximately $5 billion per year with treatment and subsequent lower limb amputations adding an additional $1 billion per year. Diabetes is the leading cause of non-traumatic lower extremity amputations and approximately 14 to 24 percent of patients with diabetes who develop foot ulcers eventually have an amputation. The three year survival rate after amputation is only 50 percent.

Emerging trends in wound healing and a growing market demand are evidenced by the recent success of negative pressure wound therapy products, such as those marketed and sold in the U.S. by Kinetics Concepts Inc. and Smith & Nephew, representing the first $1.0 billion product segment in the wound care market. Based on these trends and needs, agents designed to accelerate the rate of wound healing are expected to play a more prominent role in the future of advanced wound care. As reported by MedTech Insight, the wound care market is projected to experience double digit growth over the next 3 to 5 years, with advanced wound care products comprising the fastest growing segment of the total wound care market. There are an estimated 91.3 million wounds in the U.S., which include 67.0 million surgical wounds, 17.6 million trauma wounds including burn injuries and amputations, 2.5 million pressure ulcers, 3.6 million diabetic ulcers and 3.3 million venous stasis and arterial ulcers. The ability to effectively address even a small proportion of these wounds would represent major new market opportunities for the Company's Gene Activated Matrix (GAM) technology.