The financing was raised from Almi Invest, Chalmers Ventures, and with several angel investors to support launch of Amferia’s first product, a wound care dressing with a patented hydrogel that actively combats infections and kills antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Amferia's innovative, anti-microbial solution can be used on wide-ranging wounds from simple skin injuries, post-operative wounds to chronic wounds and trauma / burn wounds. The WHO predicts that antibiotic-resistant infections, including those from wounds could become one of the leading causes of both illness and death over the next ten years.

“I am grateful to all our committed investors: Every year, nearly 1 million people die globally because of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria and at least a quarter of those infections begin with a simple wound on the skin. Amferia's wound care solution is a game-changer and will save lives. The resistance problem is even more challenging within the animal health sector.”, says Agneta Edberg, Chairperson of Amferia.

Amferia's wound care solution is a game-changer and will save lives.

Amferia's patented material, an antimicrobial amphiphilic hydrogel, has been developed through several years of research in collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology and contains molecules inspired by body’s own immune system. The material instantly kills all bacteria (even antibiotic resistant) by binding to and disrupting their cell membranes, all without damaging the body’s own cells or entering the bloodstream. The first product from this technology is a hydrogel wound-care dressing for dry-to-low exuding wounds, while the material is also being investigated for development in several other areas, including sprays for deep wounds, and coatings for implants and a variety of catheters. In September of 2022, Amferia launched its first wound dressings for animal health in Sweden and plan on expanding across Europe during 2023. In parallel, the company is preparing to file for regulatory clearance in the US for human health.

The wound care market currently generates sales for over US $ 2 billion globally with a projected CAGR of 5 %. However, existing alternatives on the market often contain antibiotics that carry the risk of causing resistance or antiseptics that may harm body cells and negative environmental impact.

We already have our first product on the market for animal wound care in Sweden

“The investment enables us to perform three key tasks: scale up and launch our products for animal health in Europe, file for FDA clearance of the application for human health and thirdly initiate more clinical studies in both market segments. This ambition is supported by the fact that we already have our first product on the market for animal wound care in Sweden”, says Anand Kumar Rajasekharan, CEO of Amferia.

Amferia announced today that it has, in collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology, published two important scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals that describe the pre-clinical studies of its platform technology, Amphiphilic Antimicrobial Hydrogel as sprays and coatings for various medical device applications.

Amferia’s platform technology is an amphiphilic antimicrobial hydrogel material that can rapidly bind and kill all types of bacteria, even resistant bacteria, without harming the body. In an effort to enable further applications of this material, Amferia collaborated with Chalmers University of Technology to test and develop the patented technology as sprayable formulation and as coatings fight off bacterial infections in medical devices.

Today, the extensive pre-clinical data from this research has been published in two scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals*. The research was built on the formulation of the Amphiphlic Antimicrobial Hydrogel as small discrete particles, which were then further developed as sprayable form for wound care and as a coating on existing materials like silicone catheters. The results from these studies show powerful antimicrobial effect, safety to human cells while being stable in biological environments such as serum.

The material has been shown to be effective against many different types of bacteria, including those that are resistant to antibiotics

Martin Andersson, Professor at Chalmers University and Co-founder of Amferia − “Our innovation can have a dual impact in the fight against antibiotic resistance. The material has been shown to be effective against many different types of bacteria, including those that are resistant to antibiotics, such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), while also having the potential to prevent infections and thus reduce the need for antibiotics,.”

The research was undertaken based on the strong potential of Amferia’s technology, but also based on a clear need from the human and animal health care system on fighting infections in the context of deep infected wounds as well as for various medical devices such as urinary catheters. Amferia and Chalmers will continue to collaborate on this research and are planning to further study the use of the new formulations in clinical settings, both for human and animal care.

We are seeing the great potential of our technology going beyond wound care into the realm of broader medical devices

Anand Rajasekharan,CEO of Amferia − “This is an important achievement for Amferia as we are seeing the great potential of our technology going beyond wound care into the realm of broader medical devices such as coatings and sprayable systems. Our current product is a wound dressing and we look forward to follow-up the same with these pipeline products that will have a stronger impact for addressing antibiotic resistance.”

*The scientific article on the formation of antimicrobial hydrogel particles as sprays and its in-vitro efficacy, safety and stability is published in Cross-linked lyotropic liquid crystal particles functionalized with antimicrobial peptides, Blomstrand et. al. 2022

*The scientific article on the utilisation of these particles as coatings on silicone materials is published in MultifunctionalSurface Modification of PDMS for Antibacterial Contact Killing andDrug-Delivery of Polar, Nonpolar, and Amphiphilic Drugs, Stepulane et. al. 2022

Agneta has a solid background from the global Life science and Medtech field spanning over 30 years in leading roles such as; Sales &Marketing Director of Pharmacia (Pfizer), Senior VP and CEO of Mylan NordicPharmaceuticals, CEO of NM Pharma and more recently as the COO of Bactigaurd that manufactures a variety of antimicrobial device. Today, she works on theBoard of cutting-edge life-science SME’s guiding the companies for future success. Agneta’s extensive knowledge in the life science industry will be important for Amferia’s scale-up journey in both human and animal wound care.

Anand Kumar Rajasekharan, CEO of Amferia − “It is an honour to work with Agenta, whose impressive knowledge of the field and guidance greatly strengthens Amferia’s position as a competent and cutting-edge SME. We look forward to jointly achieve the upcoming key milestones such as the first product launch for animal health, FDA and CE regulatory processes for human health and establishing a successful sales and marketing foundation for Amferia.”

Agneta Edberg − “Amferia is a company every board person wishes to work for. The technology offers a paradigm shift in wound care with nontoxic properties still killing bacteria, even the resistant ones. In a world where antimicrobial resistance is an increasing challenge to humanity, I am grateful to be a part of reducing that threat”

EWMA is an important congress that brings together clinicians and healthcare  industry for important discussions within wound care for humans and animals. Amferia is eager to present our science, antimicrobial technology and introduce our first wound dressings for animal and human wound  care. We welcome all attendees to our stand located in

room 252A at the  congress venue, Palais  des Congrès de Paris, to know more about Amferia and  clinical evidence for human and animal wound care as well as for an  introduction to our soon-to-be launched wound dressings for animal wound  care. We also invite all  attendees to our scientific talk at the symposium for Veterinary Wound  Healing Association (VWHA) on 24th May at 08:45 hrs room 252A.

Amferia AB announced today that it has been granted the foundational patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)for its innovative antimicrobial material based on an amphiphilic antimicrobial hydrogel. The company is now in its final stages of product development for wound care applications and aims to launch the first product within animal health during 2022.

Amferia’s technology recognized as one of the top 100 research based innovations of 2021 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

The joint partnership with Triolab will enable Amferia to reach the large Swedish veterinary market where wound care and infection prevention is of prime importance, which has been intensified with the growing threat of antibiotic resistant infections. Amferia and Triolab’s partnership will build on extensive data and feedback from Amferia’s ongoing product trials across Europe. The joint efforts will aim to market the products to selective veterinary clinics across Sweden during 2021 and further expansion in 2022.

Almi Invest, Chalmers Ventures, along with the British investor Corithinan Properties Ltd. and Let’s Deal Founder Alexander Hars have invested a total of SEK 6.2 million in the Gothenburg-based med-tech company Amferia, who has developed a wound care product with a patented material that actively combats infections and kills antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

“Every year, 700,000 people die globally as a result of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria and almost half of the infections begin with a simple wound on the skin. Amferia's wound care solution is a game-changer and will save lives”, says Louise Warme, Investment Manager at Almi Invest.

Amferia is very excited to move into the BioVentureHub, given the strong benefits of operating in a flourishing environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure dedicated to medtech and life science companies. We are also eager to be around so many experts within life science ranging from established to early-stage companies researching in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics. Amferia looks forward to be part of, learn and grow in this supportive and exciting community.

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We had the pleasure to attend the annual Veterinary Hygiene Conference in Knivsta, Stockholm. One of the primary questions of this conference was about handling antibiotic resistant infections in animal wound care – a fast growing problem in Sweden and Globally. Many interesting & enlightening discussions with expert veterinary clinicians taught us a lot about the needs and challenges in animal wound care and how Amferia might expand its innovative solutions to help veterinary healthcare. Thanks for a great conference VVHF.