Tilapia skin dressing created by UFC will reach hospitals

According to him, Biotec has supported research since 2018 and has always believed that technology was an important step towards treating wounds caused by fire.

A burned person uses a lot of morphine — and often ends up becoming dependent. With tilapia skin, in 48 hours the patient no longer has pain — this is the revolution. And it adheres to the body and practically merges when acquiring all the characteristics of the person receiving it..
Luciano Foianesi

To grant use, UFC and the inventors will receive R$850,000. The university will also receive royalties of 3.7% on the factory’s net profit, in addition to the possibility of an additional 0.5% of revenue reinvested in research.

Biotec’s next step is to decide where the factory will be installed. Although the research was born in Ceará, Luciano explains that the choice could be another location. “São Paulo is the state where the largest tilapia producers in the country are located. This would facilitate logistics, and the skin is also sterilized here”, he says.

The company will produce the biological dressing for human and veterinary use. The product can be used on patients with deep burns of up to 2nd degree. “He explains that the company has supported the technology at UFC since 2018, and today the technique is already known in countries like China and the USA.

The product will only be used in hospitals and will be exported to interested companies, says Foianesi. “Our biggest client in Brazil will be the SUS. We have a million burns per year in Brazil. An advantage of using the skin is that the patient does not need to return to the surgical center more than once. In conventional treatments, he goes more often, and this leads to a cost reduction of at least 50%”, he says.