ISAFJORDUR, ICELAND and WASHINGTON DC--(Marketwired - Feb 26, 2015) - Kerecis, the medical fish skin company, has established an office in Washington DC and hired Chris Harte as the chief operating officer for North America.
The Kerecis Omega3 wound-treatment product is fish skin that has had its cells removed, leaving behind intact dermis that looks like skin and contains Omega3 and other skin components. When inserted into or on damaged human tissue, the Kerecis Omega3 products recruit the body's own cells, are incorporated into the wound, and ultimately are converted into functional, living tissue.
Chris will be working closely with various entities of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that Kerecis is collaborating with, and will manage the Kerecis U.S. distribution network once established. Chris will be based in the new Kerecis office in Washington DC, the first office that Kerecis has established outside of Iceland.
Chris has more than 25 years of technical and operations experience. Before joining Kerecis, he was the senior vice president of business development Americas at the enterprise resource planning company UXC Eclipse. Chris had been with the predecessor company, Tectura, since 2002. Previously, he had been operations director for Scio / GoPro in Copenhagen, Denmark. Other experience includes technical and management positions with IBM, UAB Sekasoft (Lithuania) and The Computer Group. He has resided and worked twice in Europe and once for two years in India.
He received his bachelor's degree in history from Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) and his masters' in business administration (MBA) from the University of South Carolina.
Statements
"I have worked with Chris in the past and know that his combination of operations, marketing and technical skills will be a great asset to us as we expand in the United States," said G. Fertram Sigurjonsson, President and CEO, Kerecis Limited.
About Kerecis
Kerecis develops Omega3-rich, acellular, fish-skin grafts for wound healing and tissue regeneration. Acellular grafts, also referred to as accellular dermal matrices or ADM materials, are human or animal tissue where the original material is intact, but all cells and antigenic materials have been removed. The Kerecis fish-skin material accelerates wound healing and enables tissue reconstruction.
The initial Kerecis product, which has already been approved by FDA and European regulatory authorities for wound healing, offers advantages over existing human- and porcine-derived products. Advantages include improved manufacturing economics and a lower risk of disease transfer. Since it is derived from fish, the material is both kosher and halal compatible, eliminating cultural and religious constraints to usage, with equivalent or better clinical performance than alternative approaches.
The Kerecis technology has received U.S. patents, and has patents pending in multiple countries around the world. Production takes place in Kerecis' manufacturing facilities in Iceland. Distributor inquiries are welcome.
On January 1, 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded a "Q" code to the Kerecis wound-healing product allowing the product to be easily identified and processed by Medicare and private insurance companies (Q4158). For more information, visit www.kerecis.com.
Contact Information:
Contact:
Kay Paumier
Communications Plus
408-370-1243