For some time now, investors have hated wound care. They've been scarred by past failures, most famously, the simultaneous bankruptcies in 2002 of Advanced Tissue Sciences and Organogenesis, two tissue-engineering companies targeting chronic wounds. "Show me one success," VCs tell start-ups seeking funding. Well, now there is one. Kinetic Concepts is pulling in a billion dollars in revenues from a single product in the advanced wound care market. Is it time for VCs to love advanced wound care? Five new device start-ups hope so. Three are developing therapeutic devices for chronic wounds and two are beginning in acute wound care, an emerging surgical market. (This article also appeared as "Wound Care: Medtech's New Billion Dollar Product Market," Medtech Insight November/December 2007)

For some time now, investors have hated wound care. They've been scarred by past failures, most famously, the simultaneous bankruptcies in 2002 of Advanced Tissue Sciences and Organogenesis, two tissue-engineering companies targeting chronic wounds. "Show me one success," VCs tell start-ups seeking funding. Well, now there is one. Kinetic Concepts is pulling in a billion dollars in revenues from a single product in the advanced wound care market. Is it time for VCs to love advanced wound care? Five new device start-ups hope so. Three are developing therapeutic devices for chronic wounds and two are beginning in acute wound care, an emerging surgical market. (A Reprint of "Advanced Wound Care: The Device Industry's Billion Dollar Product Market," appearing in START-UP, November 2007.

Wound care, once known as an investment graveyard, is changing. An advanced wound care market that once focused high-end technology on the small and difficult market of burns has now recognized an opportunity in chronic wounds, an enormous and growing market driven by the demographics of aging, and that segment has recently witnessed a dramatic success story. In 2004, the most successful medical device IPO was that of wound care company Kinetic Concepts.