Avita Medical, a British company in the process of moving to the L.A. area, believes it has the next big thing in regenerative skin care: genetically personalized spray that can more completely heal many burns and fade scars than conventional therapies.
Its executives and employees aren’t the only believers. Last month, Avita, which has U.S. offices in Northridge and contract manufacturing facilities in Ventura, raised nearly $12 million from Australian and international institutions. The company also recently received two Department of Defense transitional technology grants of $1.85 million each that will help finance U.S. regulatory approval for its ReCell Spray-On Skin product.
The ReCell bedside kit enables a doctor or other caregiver to take a tiny skin sample from the patient containing the cells necessary to generate new skin. The sample is mixed in a proprietary solution that is sprayed on the patient’s skin.
ReCell, which is in the middle of late-stage U.S. clinical trials, is marketed in Europe, China, Australia and six countries in the Middle East, primarily to treat burns, scarring and ulcers. But the company’s American-born chief executive, Dr. William Dolphin, said the product shows promise for everything from wrinkle reduction to repairing receding gums.
“ReCell is a technology platform that has significant potential for reconstruction and aesthetic uses,” Dolphin said. “It’s one reason we want to be in Los Angeles – because of the huge cosmetic surgery industry here – and in California in general because of the state’s significant support for stem cell research.”
Dolphin joined the company in 2008, and came to Los Angeles in December to prepare moving the headquarters and the company’s Australian research and development facility here, although the company still plans to keep regional facilities at its current base in Cambridge, England, and the Australian city of Subiaco near Perth, where the technology was first developed.
Georgia Import
Donna Gates is another entrepreneur in the process of moving her health company, Body Ecology. She is bringing most Body Ecology operations from her hometown in rural Georgia to Los Angeles.
“I really excited about being here because L.A. is a very sophisticated market – things spring from here to the rest of the country,” said Gates, whose 1996 book, “Body Ecology Diet,” helped popularize the use of probiotics, coconut oil and fermented foods to treat severe digestive ailments.
Because many of the supplements she recommends were not readily available when the book first came out, Gates said she soon found herself in the product business, obtaining organic coconut oil and the plant-based sweetener stevia from around the world. Her Body Ecology fermented probiotic-rich coconut water is made by an Australian company that hopes to soon establish a U.S. facility here.
These days, bottled flavored coconut water is available in convenience stores, and both Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo plan to launch stevia-sweetened diet sodas. But Gates believes people will pay a premium for her product because of its quality ingredients.
“Our volume of annual sales is pretty small now – about $3.5 million – because we mostly are sold in a few specialty stores around the country,” she said. “But I think it’s realistic to think we could be up to $55 million in the next five years.”
Her largest retail customer is Erewhon, a Fairfax District natural foods grocery known for its extensive inventory of niche diet products. The store devotes significant shelf space at the front of the store to Body Ecology products.
“Body Ecology has been a phenomenon,” said store manager Juan Hernandez, who has known Gates since she was promoting her self-published book with in-store demonstrations.
Gates last year signed a publishing contract with Carlsbad alternative publisher Hay House; she also hired her first outside chief executive, Randall Zamcheck.
Zamcheck has high hopes for a recently launched e-commerce site featuring suggested product packages for customers who may not have an Erewhon-like store in their area.
A revised edition of “Body Ecology Diet” was published last month, and the 65-year-old Gate’s new book, “The Baby Boomer Diet: Body Ecology’s Guide to Growing Younger,” is set to come out in October.
“I think the publisher was surprised that their small run of only 5,000 copies sold out on its first day of Amazon, and we have back orders for another 4,700 copies,” Zamcheck said. “That indicates there will be lot of demand for Donna’s new book and anything else she comes out with.”
Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 232.
