Cellomeda Oy Ltd

The company, Cellomeda Oy Ltd, was founded in 1991 by members of the Cellstick® development team. The roots of CVS as a highly suitable matrix, however, derive from the 1960's. It was at this time at the University of Turku that Jouko Viljanto, M.D., discovered the superb potential of CVS in providing an ideal environment for living cells. The finding interested other scientists as well: close to twenty Ph.D.-related studies have been undertaken on CVS and Cellstick® at a variety of universities, and about 80 scientific articles on the subject have been published (cf. Publication Summary, Cellomeda).

The idea was led to the R&D phase by a pharmaceutical firm, which launched the project necessary for first gaining basic knowledge regarding CVS processing-a procedure still, in global terms, quite rare indeed. With the focus having been directed towards their core pharmaceutical business, the pharmaceutical enterprise transferred the rights, patents and trademarks to the team of experts within the company responsible for Cellstick® development. This team subsequently established Cellomeda Oy Ltd, in 1991.

The team consists of different breeds of experts: the initial medical expertise available at the University of Turku has been combined with know-how in cellulosepulping at Åbo Akademi University, also in Turku. The company has resources at its disposal for process equipment innovation, marketing, etc. Since 1995, SITRA - the Finnish National Fund for R&D - has been Cellomeda's leading partner.

Cellomeda is, in addition, interested in licensing the CVS process technology for medical and other applications. The enterprise also manufactures CVS as specially formulated to meet individual customer requirements. In optimal terms, this involves the combination of CVS with other suitable materials.

Cellomeda Oy Ltd has its premises in Turku at the BioCity centre, an ultra-modern R&D facility committed to the development of biomaterials and biotechnology. Cellomeda has, at its disposal, the equipment required to carry out the actual CVS process as well as the clean room facilities required for post-treatment of the processed CVS.