YORK medical device specialist Tissue Regenix has secured a £400,000 distribution contract as it continues work to commercialise its wound treatment technology in the US.

The company, based at York Science Park, says it has seen "substantial commercial interest" over the last two months in its Dermapure product, which works by taking human donor skin and removing the DNA and cells, to leave a natural scaffold to treat wounds.

The recent activity follows Tissue Regenix receiving a notice of Local Coverage Determination (LCD) from Novitas in March.

The approval from Novitas, which is an administration contractor for the US government's national social insurance programme Medicare, and responsible for product coverage and reimbursement for 8.9 million patients, enables outpatient medical facilities to obtain reimbursement for Dermapure.

Following the LCD notice coming into effect on April 9, Tissue Regenix has now signed a major new contract with an experienced surgical and wound care distribution network.

The contract, which covers two of the 12 states in the region covered by the Novitas reimbursement LCD notice and represents around 11 per cent of the Medicare patients addressed by the notice, is expected to be worth a minimum of $600,000 (£400,000) over the next 12 months and provides for additional areas to be covered by mutual agreement.

Antony Odell, chief executive of Tissue Regenix, said: "Our US team has done an outstanding job in achieving commercial traction for DermaPure and signing this regional distribution agreement.

"This agreement validates the hard work put in since the launch of DermaPure in June 2014, as well as the remarkable clinical results that we are seeing from the product.

"We are delighted with the opportunity to expand our reach to help patients in the post-acute environment, including wound care centres and ambulatory surgical centres. These facilities represent a significant usage of skin substitutes for wound care treatment."

Tissue Regenix said it is also continuing to deploy its direct sales representatives to build on increasing clinical awareness of the outstanding results being achieved in the US by Dermapure, as part of its "hybrid" distribution strategy of both direct and indirect sales representation.

The LCD notice spans the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Washington DC, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania with total health care coverage of 8.9 million Medicare beneficiaries.