Episurf Medical (NASDAQ: EPIS B) today announces that the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has on August 24 published interventional procedures guidance on IPG734 Focal resurfacing implants to treat articular cartilage damage in the knee, where Episurf Medical’s Episealer® Knee implants are included. The publication follows a review of relevant documentation and stakeholder input, including patients and surgeons, that has been going on for several quarters.

NICE guidelines are evidence-based recommendations for health and care in the UK, to help healthcare professionals in their work. The Interventional procedures recommendations include four different types of recommendations, where IPG734 falls under the recommendation “Special arrangements”. Under this recommendation, national and regional funding for the Episealer® device is more accessible, whilst previously without guidelines, funding has generally not been available for the Episealer® in the UK market.

“Episurf Medical welcomes the newly published guidelines on focal cartilage resurfacing that recommend the procedure with special arrangement. This includes paying extra attention to the recording of outcome data and patient selection, which our Damage Marking Reporting process is perfect to assist with. We are very happy to support the process recommended by NICE and believe we are well placed as an organisation to facilitate the responsible use of patient-specific focal resurfacing implants” comments Stephen Caswell, Head of Sales, OUS, Episurf Medical.

“We are pleased with the outcome of this process, and this will certainly help the establishment of the Episealer® technology in the UK market. In fact, several international markets take guidance from NICE recommendations, and we hope to benefit from this also in other regions”, says Pål Ryfors, CEO Episurf Medical.

The published guidance can be found at https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/IPG734.