Restrictive scar contracture (a condition where tissue thickens and tightens, pulling the surrounding healthy skin toward the damaged area) due to a serious burn injury can result in long term aesthetic and physical consequences.
Skin contractures adjacent to a joint lead to joint deformities that severely restrict range of motion (ROM) of the affected joint. Skin contractures are also often accompanied by crippling levels of chronic pain resulting in a high level of dependency on pain medications. These isolated or combined factors can lead to a significant disruption in both social and professional life, leading to a marked impact on an individual's quality of life.
The current standard of care for restrictive scar contracture involves the surgical excision of the contracture itself and/ or skin grafting. These standard therapies require extensive and often repeated surgeries. Physicians are continually seeking less invasive therapies to treat patients with burn contractures.
ICX-RHY-013 is an investigational medicinal product comprised of viable allogeneic human dermal fibroblast (HDFs) cells suspended in HypoThermosol®-FRS. HDFs are isolated from neonatal foreskin, cryopreserved, thawed and expanded in culture under good manufacturing practice at Intercytex Ltd., United Kingdom. The drug formulation will be 20 million cells per 1 milliliter of HypoThermosol® and will be administered to subjects via intradermal injections at a maximum dose of 0.25 ml (or 5 million cells) per cm² of tissue.
If determined to be safe and effective, it is believed this therapy could, in the future, be delivered in a series of superficial injections and can be carried out in a doctor's office. This treatment could represent a new less invasive therapy of choice for patients with burn contractures, where current recourse would be to surgery. This advance could have significant positive benefits to the patient in terms of:
* no side-effects of surgery
* treatment given in an outpatient environment without the need for expensive hospitalization
* enhanced quality of life
* lower costs
Cohort 1 will consist of 4 participants who are scheduled to have elective body contouring surgery which will consist of the removal of an abdominal incision scar. The investigational drug will be injected into the existing surgical incision (scar) with the investigational drug, ICX-RHY-013. The purpose of this cohort is to evaluate the initial safety of the investigational drug (ICX-RHY-013) in a series of doses on your surgical scar that will then be surgically removed.
Cohorts 2 through 5 will consist of 4 participants each who have burn scars with restrictive scar contractures. The purpose of these cohorts is to evaluate the ongoing safety of the investigational drug (ICX-RHY-013) in post burn scars with restrictive scar contractures. The investigational drug will be injected directly into these scar contractures. Each cohort is unique in that the dose and frequency of the investigational drug received will be different. We will evaluate the safety of the drug between each cohort by assessing all side effects that the participants may experience.