The advanced wound care market is attracting an increasing number of competitors and investors seeking a stake in this high-need, high-growth space. But although the number of innovative wound care products is on the rise, this is also a highly diverse market, with some striking differences among various regions of the world in terms of product adoption and standard wound care practices.

Brief summaries of recent medtech market and industry developments. This month we cover China’s switch to a centralized billing system, St. Jude Medical’s RESPECT PFO closure trial, FDA’s approval of HeartWare’s LVAD, and end-of-the-year medtech M&A.

This month we cover MxBiodevices LLC, which has completed two clinical trials of its injectable wound repair scaffold that is injected just under the wound surface to provide a healing structure; and Histogenics Corp., which is in a Phase III clinical trial in articular cartilage repair.