Stratatech acquisition another ‘success story’ for Madison biotech industry

Madison-based Stratatech Corp. is getting acquired by the British pharmaceutical company Mallinckrodt.

Terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close this year, were not disclosed. But it’s yet another “success story” for the area, said William Murphy, the co-director of UW-Madison’s Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Center.

“It’s emblematic of what’s been happening in Madison over the last 10 years,” Murphy said. “Madison is considered the birthplace of regenerative medicine — not just on the academic but also the industry side. It remains a leading hub for this kind of work.”

The company’s StrataGraft technology substitutes skin tissue to treat those with severe burns, instead of having those patients get skin transplanted, or grafted, from another part of the body. The company is in the third phase of trials for its leading technology and expects to get FDA approval by 2020. Trials for other uses of the technology are also underway.

Last year, it got a $247 million contract from the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to boost its testing process so the feds can stockpile its technology for emergencies such as a nuclear attack.

The company’s founder, UW-Madison professor Lynn Allen-Hoffmann, did not respond to a request for comment.

But Mallinckrodt spokeswoman Rhonda Sciarra said Stratatech’s operations will stay in its “highly specialized” facility and noted the British company has another device manufacturing operation in the area.

“There are no plans to consolidate the two operations into a single site, and we currently expect the Stratatech operation to remain in Madison,” she said.

And Mark Trudeau, the Mallinckrodt CEO and president, said Stratatech’s technology “has the potential to transform the standard of treatment for wound care.”

“The addition of this highly durable, cutting-edge development portfolio and technology platform to our hospital growth business is an excellent example of Mallinckrodt’s Acquire to Invest strategy,” he said in a news release.

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— By Polo Rocha,
WisBusiness.com