Our goal at Polymedics Innovations (PMI) is to achieve CO2-neutral production by 2030. This is in line with Germany’s objective of finding an equilibrium between its greenhouse gas emissions and their elimination.

KLIMAfit initiative

Because that’s a big task – for us as a company and for Germany as a country – PMI is excited to receive the support provided by the KLIMAfit initiative. The aim of this programme, funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, is to introduce commercial enterprises to corporate climate protection and to support them in reducing their CO₂ emissions. Work is carried out on a regional basis; one of these regional groups is KLIMAfit Esslingen, in which PMI is participating together with five other companies.

Agenda

In our first meeting early in 2024, we dealt with greenhouse gas balancing. This gave everyone a clear understanding of what we are talking about. Electricity, heat, and renewable energies were the focus in the second session. Our final group meeting focused on compensation measures. Mobility and Scope 3 emissions – pollutants not caused by the production company, but by their suppliers, customers, and other external stakeholders – have caused us to step back and look at our business from a global perspective. Mobility is part of our corporate culture.  “We have an independent sales company in the USA and numerous employees,” explains our CEO Christian Planck. “We also sell our products in around 40 countries around the globe. Air travel is part of everyday working life.”

Despite this, we can still find ways to reduce our carbon footprint. For example, as many appointments as possible are being combined in order to reduce the number of air trips. Longer stays make more sense than several individual arrivals. Even seat spacing has an impact on the traveller’s carbon footprint. In other words, economy class beats business class.

Energy efficiency as an integral part of PMI’s building design

20 years is a considerable period of time. If we take the human perspective, it’s the number of years that elapse from childhood to adulthood An incredibly long time from a child’s point of view, which seems to pass much faster later when we become parents ourselves. It’s all about perspective…

A revolution in treating burn injuries

We actually wanted to talk about SUPRATHEL®, our artificial skin substitute. For a medical product, 20 years is a lifetime: the world can change dramatically in two decades.

We – or more precisely SUPRATHEL® – can provide a good example: Carsten Krohn, head physician at the Center for Severely Burned Children at the Munich Schwabing Clinic, explains how burns were treated some 20 years ago: “At the beginning of my career, burns and scalds were still treated openly, meaning that the patients lay with their open wounds in a very warm, humid room. Because burns and especially dressing changes are extremely painful, patients were sedated. They also had to be isolated to prevent wound infections. It was a traumatic experience for the children, just as it was for their parents!”

Luckily, SUPRATHEL® changed this regimen. Dr. Herbert Haller, for many years a senior physician at the Unfallkrankenhaus Accident Clinic in Linz, Austria, and director of its Burns Center, remembers how quickly this happened: “SUPRATHEL® made up to three dressing changes obsolete overnight.” He particularly points out the pain relief and the fact the artificial skin substitute can stay on the wound: “That was particularly beneficial in the treatment of children, who previously had to be sedated with opiates before changing a dressing.”

“Because it is good”

A revolution doesn’t need much time. SUPRATHEL®, however, also shows us  something else: that a revolution can be long-lived, even in the field of medical technology.

Dr. Lars Kamolz, University Professor at the University of Graz, was one of the early users of SUPRATHEL®. For nearly 20 years, the Graz University Hospital has relied on SUPRTHEL®  for treating 2a and 2b-degree burns. When asked what convinces him most about SUPRATHEL®, Dr. Kamolz answers: “I find the view over a period of time impressive. If a product is still in use after 20 years that is the greatest accolade. New materials come onto the market; competitors mount an attack. If a product succeeds in staying in the market as a standard, it is simply good.”

Dr. Matthias Rapp from the Center for Severe Burn Injuries at the Marienhospital in Stuttgart chooses a more numbers-based approach: “By using SUPRATHEL® we have been able to reduce by about two thirds the number of operations for second-degree burns.”

Solid base for future products

Despite the continued success for SUPRATHEL®, we are not resting on our laurels. SUPRA SDRM®,  for example, is a product that utilizes and expands upon the knowledge and experience gained in the development of SUPRATHEL®. SUPRA SDRM® has been found effective in treating difficult-to-heal wounds faster than current standard of care and has already brought back quality of life to many people.

Polylactic acid-based products (PLAs) such as SUPRATHEL® and SUPRA SDRM® are sought after for many applications due to their degradability and biocompatibility. PLAs are also suitable as a scaffold material for tissue engineering. Additionally, by shifting the pH of the wound bed from an alkaline to a neutral pH, our PLAs create an environment that is unsuitable for many pathogenic bacteria – allowing the wound healing process to accelerate and bring the patient back to a normal quality of life and productivity.

What does “economy” mean? What does “industry” refer to? These terms are omnipresent in our everyday lives, we use them all the time. But let’s be honest: Could we explain the respective concept in a few sentences? And in such a way that even a primary school child understands?

Second graders visit PolyMedics Innovations

The task definitely needs a bit of preparation – and a clear example. We have decided on an object that every child knows, usually better than the parents would like: the Kinder Joy surprise egg. In spring 2024, we used the toy-filled chocolate egg to explain to around 20 second-graders from the Schafhof primary school in Kirchheim/Teck what we do as a “company”. This is what the primary school pupils who visited us together with their teacher wanted to know.

Using the Kinder Joy example, we have illustrated the path of a product over its entire life cycle. A good product requires research and development. After all, the chocolate should taste delicious and not melt directly in the hands. Someone has to produce the chocolate, choose the toy that goes into the egg, and has to think about whether the child who unwraps it at the end will enjoy it. Someone then has to sell the Kinder Joy to supermarkets, another has to do the advertising.

After this insight, our little visitors were allowed to stroll through the building at PolyMedics Innovations and see what we produce; as we all know, these are not chocolate eggs. At the side of her father Christian Planck, Luise Planck guided her classmates through offices, the clean room, and the production of artificial skin substitute materials.

Crafting project at the end

At the end of their afternoon, the kids were allowed to get active themselves: Together with their teacher and some skilled PMI colleagues, each child made their own lava lamp. And, of course, there was also a surprise egg for everybody to take home.

Education as a social task

Christian Planck, CEO of PolyMedics Innovations, cherished the visit of the primary school pupils as a proud Dad – and way beyond. “We cannot take the education of our children, our young generation, seriously enough. We hope that with our practice-oriented afternoon we were able to convey an understanding of ‘business’, ‘companies’, and thus also of what mom and dad do every day. We would like to thank the Schafhof Elementary School and their staff and ours,  who made her way to us with her class.”