Beyond the Dressing: Where Advanced Wound Care Is Heading

Chronic wounds remain a significant clinical and economic challenge. But the most interesting change in wound care is not simply the development of better dressings. It is the sector’s transition from products that manage the wound environment towards integrated technologies that actively address infection, inflammation, vascularisation and tissue regeneration.

When we considered next-generation wound care in February 2025, smart dressings, bioactive materials and advanced drug delivery were showing how wound products could participate more actively in healing. The direction of travel is now becoming clearer. Biofilm-disrupting materials and regenerative matrices are gaining commercial ground, nitric oxide platforms are moving closer to wider adoption, and emerging technologies such as exosomes and responsive biomaterials point towards increasingly integrated treatment platforms.

These technologies are developing at different speeds. Understanding where each sits on the path from research to adoption can help businesses identify commercial opportunities, anticipate regulatory complexity and build IP strategies around the aspects of a platform that create lasting value.

The shift from wound management to wound healing

Historically, innovation in wound care focused on improving moisture management, absorbency and patient comfort. While those considerations remain important, the industry has increasingly recognised that chronic wounds represent a complex biological problem driven by factors such as inflammation, infection, impaired vascularisation and biofilm formation.

Some technologies are already generating clinical and commercial value, while others remain several years from widespread adoption. Their different stages of maturity create different commercial and IP considerations, from securing broad platform protection in early-stage fields to defending market position in established categories.

Commercially established or scaling technologies

Biofilm disruption - an innovation priority

Biofilms - communities of microorganisms embedded within a protective matrix - can significantly impair healing and contribute to treatment failure. The increasingly recognised role of biofilms in chronic wounds has made biofilm disruption a major focus of innovation. Traditional antimicrobial approaches, particularly silver-containing dressings, remain widely used. However, concerns surrounding antimicrobial stewardship and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are driving the search for alternative solutions.

One European company pursing an alternative approach is Polaroid Therapeutics, a Swiss biotechnology company developing proprietary antimicrobial polymer technologies for acute and chronic wounds. The company's platform is designed to reduce bacterial bioburden through a novel mechanism of action that disrupts bacterial cell membranes while avoiding traditional antibiotic pathways. The company positions its technology as a potential solution to AMR-related challenges in wound care.

During 2025, Polaroid Therapeutics expanded its innovation activities through collaborations with the University of Hull, including the establishment of a dedicated wound innovation institute.

From an intellectual property perspective, technologies that combine antimicrobial efficacy with reduced resistance potential are particularly attractive. They sit at the intersection of chemistry, biomaterials and medical devices, creating opportunities for layered patent protection that may prove commercially valuable as regulators and healthcare systems increasingly prioritise AMR mitigation.

Regenerative matrices gain commercial ground

Another important trend is the increasing commercialisation of regenerative technologies. The most successful approaches to date have centred on extracellular matrix (ECM) materials, placental-derived matrices and biologically active wound scaffolds. These technologies seek to provide more than simple wound coverage by actively supporting tissue regeneration and healing.

This is an area where the influence of the US market remains particularly strong. Companies such as Organogenesis, MiMedx, Integra LifeSciences and MTF Biologics continue to expand portfolios of advanced biologic wound healing products, many of which are increasingly relevant to European markets. UK-based Convatec has also invested heavily in this space. Following its acquisition of Triad Life Sciences, the company has expanded its Advanced Tissue Technologies portfolio and recently introduced ConvaMatrix™, a placental-derived wound matrix intended for diabetic foot ulcers and venous leg ulcers.

Technologies that are moving into wider commercial adoption

Nitric oxide moves towards commercial adoption

A notable trend over the last 18 months has been the progression of nitric oxide (NO)-based wound therapies from promising academic research towards commercial products.

Nitric oxide is an attractive therapeutic agent because it may support wound healing through multiple mechanisms simultaneously. In addition to antimicrobial and anti-biofilm activity, nitric oxide is known to promote angiogenesis and tissue regeneration.

Perhaps the most visible commercial development in Europe in this area has come from Convatec. At the European Wound Management Association (EWMA) 2026 conference, the company highlighted its nitric oxide-generating wound care platform, including ConvaNiox™, which combines advanced dressing technology with nitric oxide delivery. According to the company, its clinical studies indicate improvements in diabetic foot ulcer healing and accelerated wound area reduction relative to standard care. The extent to which these results translate across wound types, care settings and patient populations will be important to commercial adoption.

Nitric oxide now sits at the transition between research and commercial adoption. Unlike many emerging regenerative technologies, it is now beginning to appear within commercial wound care platforms, making it a useful indicator of how active therapies may evolve over the next few years.

Smart dressings face a translation challenge

Smart wound dressings continue to attract significant research attention because of their potential to combine monitoring, diagnostics and therapy within a single platform. Recent publications continue to highlight systems incorporating sensors capable of monitoring parameters such as:

• pH;

• temperature;

• bacterial infection;

• oxygenation;

• exudate composition.

   

Many platforms aim to provide real-time monitoring while simultaneously delivering therapeutics in response to changing wound conditions. Commercial adoption nevertheless remains limited. This highlights a recurring challenge in wound care innovation: demonstrating not only technical performance, but also clear clinical utility, economic value and compatibility with existing care pathways.

Nonetheless, smart dressings continue to generate significant patent activity. As the cost and usability of sensor technologies improve, and remote monitoring becomes more established, some of the barriers to clinical adoption may begin to fall.

Innovation platforms

Exosomes offer promise, but remain earlier stage

Although most current commercial activity remains focused on extracellular matrix materials and placental products, attention is increasingly turning towards exosome and extracellular vesicle therapies.

Exosomes are naturally occurring nanoscale vesicles capable of transporting signalling molecules between cells. Researchers are investigating their ability to modulate inflammation, stimulate angiogenesis and enhance tissue regeneration.Recent scientific literature identifies engineered exosomes and extracellular vesicle platforms as promising future therapies for chronic wounds.

While widespread commercial deployment remains some distance away, patent activity is already emerging around exosome production methods, engineered vesicle compositions, delivery systems and combination products incorporating hydrogels or wound dressings.

Exosome technologies remain at an earlier commercial stage. Nevertheless, they provide a useful indication of where longer-term innovation is heading and where businesses may wish to begin monitoring competitor patent activity.

Advanced biomaterials point towards integrated wound care platforms

Materials science continues to play a critical role in wound care innovation.

Recent research has explored:

• nanofibre dressings;

• conductive wound dressings;

• responsive hydrogels;

• antimicrobial nanoparticles;

• multifunctional biomaterials capable of combining infection control and tissue regeneration.

One example is the European research project MX-WOUND, which aims to develop a multimodal wound care platform based on two-dimensional nanomaterials called MXenes, combining antibacterial and regenerative functionality.

Although still early-stage, these technologies demonstrate the sector’s growing convergence. Future commercial products are likely to integrate materials science, diagnostics and therapeutics within a single platform. For developers, that convergence creates practical questions about product classification, evidence generation and which elements of the platform competitors can design around.

Similar convergence is taking place in wound closure. Tissue adhesives, antimicrobial closure products and incision-management systems increasingly combine mechanical closure with infection prevention, monitoring or active support for healing. As the boundaries between closure and wound management become less distinct, businesses may need to consider how protection for the closure mechanism interacts with protection for the materials, therapeutic components and post-operative care platform.

Scientific attention and near-term commercial potential do not always align. For businesses deciding where to invest, partner or file, the key question is therefore not simply which technologies appear most innovative, but where protectable and commercially meaningful value is likely to arise.

Protecting integrated wound-care platforms

As wound-care platforms become more integrated, patent strategy may need to address several layers of innovation: the active material or biologic; the dressing or delivery architecture; manufacturing and sterilisation methods; therapeutic combinations; sensing and control systems; and the processing or use of wound data. The convergence of devices, biologics and digital technologies also raises practical questions about product classification, regulatory strategy and freedom to operate.

Timing will also matter. Early patent filing may be important in a fast-moving field, but filing before the platform and supporting evidence are sufficiently developed can create difficulties around claim breadth, plausibility and later amendments. Businesses should therefore align publication, clinical development and patent filing strategies from an early stage.

A broader IP review may also be appropriate. Manufacturing know-how, data sets, algorithms and clinical workflows may not all be best protected in the same way. The strongest position may combine patents with trade secrets, carefully managed collaborations and clear ownership of resulting data and improvements.

The commercial value of wound care portfolios is reflected in continuing opposition and appeal activity before the EPO. Recent disputes have involved several leading manufacturers and technologies across the sector, spanning established wound-care materials, negative-pressure therapy and sensor-enabled dressings. Rather than being isolated procedural events, these cases illustrate how closely contested patent scope can influence freedom to operate and product positioning in established markets.

Table 1: Recent EPO disputes in wound care

Looking ahead

Wound care innovation is increasingly taking place at the interfaces between disciplines. Materials are becoming active, dressings are becoming diagnostic, and regenerative products are combining biological activity with sophisticated delivery platforms.

The next generation of wound care will not be defined by any single material, device or therapeutic approach. Successful businesses will be those that can bring science, clinical evidence, product design and IP strategy together around a clearly defined clinical problem, while protecting the aspects of the platform in which its commercial value actually lies.

The next generation of wound care is unlikely to be defined by any single material, device or therapeutic approach. It will be shaped by businesses that can bring science, evidence, product design and IP strategy together to solve a clearly defined clinical problem.