Wound Care

Every year, millions of people worldwide need medical care for burn injuries and chronic wounds. Evonik develops and manufactures the biomaterials that make this care possible – from bioresorbable polymers supplied as raw materials to medical device manufacturers, to our own market-approved wound dressings made from biosynthetic cellulose. As a partner to medical device companies, we combine decades of materials expertise with regulatory experience – from initial formulation all the way to commercial-scale manufacturing under GMP and ISO 13485.

The numbers show why better material solutions in wound care are urgently needed:

• An estimated 11 million people worldwide sustain burn injuries requiring medical attention every year – more than 30,000 new cases every day.
• Burns cause an estimated 180,000 to 250,000 deaths annually, the vast majority in low- and middle-income countries.
• The global chronic wound care market is valued at around USD 15 billion (2025) and continues to grow steadily, driven by diabetes, vascular disease, and an aging population.
• Roughly 19% to 34% of all people with diabetes develop a diabetic foot ulcer over the course of their disease — one of the most common causes of chronic, hard-to-heal wounds.
• Venous leg ulcers affect an estimated 1 to 5 percent of the elderly population in Europe and North America.

These trends are increasing the pressure on hospitals, care facilities, and medical device manufacturers to offer more effective, better-tolerated, and more cost-efficient wound care solutions. This is exactly where Evonik's materials expertise comes in.

Evonik covers the full value chain of bio-based wound care materials — as a raw material partner for our customers' own formulations, and as a manufacturer of our own clinically proven medical devices.

Our portfolio of RESOMER® bioresorbable polymers — including poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA), polycaprolactone (PCL), and polydioxanone (PDO) — forms the material science foundation for numerous modern medical devices. Manufacturers use our materials to develop implants, wound dressings, suture materials, and other resorbable applications where controlled degradation in the body plays a central role.

This portfolio is complemented by VECOLLAN®, our recombinant, non-animal-derived collagen platform. As a biomimetic material, VECOLLAN® actively interacts with surrounding tissue and can support wound healing, while offering the purity, consistency, and scalability required for regulated medical devices. A key advantage for developers: VECOLLAN® can be combined with our bioresorbable polymers. This enables combination products that pair the mechanical stability and defined degradation time of resorbable polymers with the biological activity of a collagen-based material — for applications that require both structural integrity and active tissue regeneration.

Through our subsidiary JeNaCell GmbH, part of Evonik since 2021, we produce biosynthetic cellulose — a nature-identical, high-purity material with more than 95 percent water content, manufactured through a fermentation process in Germany. This material platform is available to manufacturers in two forms: as a raw material under the brand biocellic® for custom product development and private-label solutions, and as a finished, MDR-certified medical device under the brand epicite®. All three epicite® product lines are certified according to MDR standards, and together they demonstrate the clinical applicability of the underlying material technology' across a range of several indications

epicite® BALANCE — A hydro-active wound dressing for chronic and complex wounds such as lower extremity ulcers, diabetic foot ulcer, and pressure ulcers. Supports autolytic wound cleansing and reactivates stalled healing processes.

epicite® RESCUE — A wound dressing for burn care and acute wounds. Clinically shown to cool and relieve pain, with dwell times on the wound of up to 14 days — reducing dressing changes, anesthesia procedures, and hospital stays.*

epicite® CALM — Medical-grade and sterile post-treatment care following laser, light, and energy-based aesthetic procedures, as well as surgical interventions such as facelifts or blepharoplasty.

All three product lines are built on the same underlying principle: a finely branched, hydrophilic cellulose fiber network that creates an ideally moist wound environment, absorbs exudate in a controlled way, and supports the body's own healing process — without additives, fragrances, or preservatives.