United Health Products Inc

Company Overview

United Health Products, Inc. (“UHP” or the “Company”) develops, manufactures, and markets a patented hemostatic gauze for the healthcare and wound care sectors. Our gauze product, HemoStyp®, is derived from cotton and designed to absorb exudate/drainage from superficial wounds and help control bleeding. We are in the process of seeking regulatory approval to sell our Hemostyp product line into the U.S. Class III and European CE Mark surgical markets.

Developments

During 2022 and 2023, the Company worked to address certain deficiencies in its Premarket Approval (PMA) application that were identified by the FDA in 2021. These were largely related to the need for standardized procedures for our manufacturing process, and quality assurance procedures for finished, customer ready products. As of the date of this report we have implemented procedures and Good Manufacturing Practices that are responsive to the deficiencies identified by the FDA.

On March 21, 2024, we submitted to the FDA a revised Premarket Approval application to market our absorbable hemostatic gauze for human surgical applications in the United States. The FDA is currently reviewing our application and there can be no assurance that our PMA application will be approved.

Our HemoStyp Gauze Products

HemoStyp hemostatic gauze is a natural substance created from chemically treated cellulose derived from cotton. It is an effective hemostatic agent registered with the FDA for superficial use under a 510(k) approval obtained in 2012 to help control bleeding from open wounds and body cavities. The HemoStyp hemostatic material contains no chemical additives, thrombin, collagen or animal-derived products, and is hypoallergenic. When the product comes in contact with blood it expands slightly and quickly converts to a translucent gel that subsequently breaks down into glucose and salts. Because of its benign impact on body tissue and the fact that it degrades to non-toxic end products, HemoStyp does not impede the healing of body tissue as compared to certain competing hemostatic products. Laboratory testing has shown HemoStyp to be 100% absorbable in the human body within 24 hours, compared to days or weeks with competing organic regenerated cellulose products. A human trial conducted in 2019 and 2020 demonstrated the effectiveness of HemoStyp in vascular, thoracic and abdominal surgical procedures.

HemoStyp hemostatic gauze is a flexible, silk-like material that is applied by placing the gauze onto the bleeding tissue. The supple material can be easily folded and manipulated as needed to fit the size of the wound or incision. In surface bleeding and surgical situations, the product quickly converts to a translucent gel that allows the physician or surgeon to monitor the coagulation process. The gel maintains a neutral pH level, which avoids damaging the surrounding tissue. In superficial bleeding situations, HemoStyp can be bonded to an adhesive plastic bandage or integrated into a traditional gauze component to address a broad range of needs, including traumatic bleeding injuries and prolonged bleeding following hemodialysis.

Potential Target Markets

Our HemoStyp material is currently cut to several sizes and configuration and marketed as HemoStyp Gauze. Our potential customer base includes, without limitation, the following:

Primary Strategy

Our HemoStyp technology received an FDA 510(k) approval in 2012 for use in external or superficial bleeding situations and we believe there is an opportunity for HemoStyp products to address unmet needs in several medical applications that represent attractive commercial opportunities. However, the Class III surgical markets, both domestic and international, represent the most attractive market for our products due to the smaller number of competitors offering Class III approved hemostatic agents and the resulting premium pricing for products that can meet the demanding requirements of the human surgical environment. We believe that our extensive laboratory testing and our completed human trial indicate that the HemoStyp technology could successfully compete against established Class III market participants, and could gain a significant market share. There can be no assurance that an FDA Premarket Approval (PMA) will be granted.

In anticipation of receiving a Class III PMA (which cannot be assured), we are evaluating paths to rapidly grow our revenue and profits in all potential market segments, with the objective of maximizing shareholder value. We do not intend to pursue the full commercialization of our products independently nor to remain an independent company in the long term. Options under consideration include (i) a sale or merger of the Company with an industry leader in the wound care and surgical device sectors, which may include a pre-sale collaboration on commercialization and distribution and (ii) one or more commercial partnerships with established market participants, without any specific, associated sale or merger transaction.

The Company has been contacted by several medical technology companies that are active in the surgical equipment and hemostatic products sectors, and who have expressed an interest in the Company’s products and business strategy. We continue to evaluate the potential commercial partnerships in anticipation of an FDA decision on our Class III PMA application. No assurances can be given that the Company will identify any commercialization candidate(s) or enter into a transaction.

Manufacturing and Packaging of our Products

The Company’s products will be manufactured to our specifications through a contract manufacturing arrangement with an FDA certified supplier that maintains stringent quality control protocols to assure the uniformity and quality of all of our gauze products. Information on the manufacturing process and our manufacturer’s facility has been submitted as part of our PMA submission. Our gauze products are cut to size, packaged and sterilized by service providers in the United States.

Patents and Trademarks

Our hemostatic gauze technology is protected through patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which protection currently runs through 2029. In 2020 and 2021, we filed additional U.S. and International patents seeking to protect the use of our hemostatic technology in a gel or hydrocolloid formulation.

On January 21, 2021, the U.S. Patent Office provided notification of publication of the Company’s patent application for the method of forming and using a hemostatic hydrocolloid. This publication does not imply any assurance of the receipt of the patent but establishes an obligation of any party that seeks to use the applicable method to pay royalties for the right to do so. The patent application for this process remains pending as of the date of this filing.

On February 11, 2021, the Company was notified that its application to establish global patent protection for the process of creating and deploying a hydrocolloid (or gel) format of its HemoStyp technology was accepted for publication under the procedures of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (“PCT”), an international patent law treaty which provides a unified procedure for filing a patent application in most foreign countries. We previously filed provisional patent applications for our HemoStyp hydrocolloid process in 2020. In January 2022, the Company initiated steps to register its hydrocolloid patent in the European common market and in additional foreign countries where we intend to commercialize any future HemoStyp gel formats. We can give no assurance that foreign registration of our patents will be granted in any of these jurisdictions.

The Company has registered trademarks for the following product formats:

Competition

The wound care products market in the United States is concentrated among large and established companies such as Baxter International, Becton Dickinson & Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Johnson & Johnson and 3M Company, each of which have greater capital and operational resources than us. Our hemostatic gauze product will directly compete in the gauze markets served by these companies. In this market, competitive factors include product performance, price, breadth of product offerings, value-added service programs, service and delivery, credit terms, and customer support.

Government Regulation

We are subject to oversight by various federal and state governmental entities and we are subject to, and affected by, a variety of federal and state laws, regulations and policies generally applicable to the healthcare and medical device industries.

Environmental Matters

The Company may be subject to, or affected by, environmental legislation including, among others, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. There may be laws and regulations that exist or that may come to pass that may also have an impact on the Company in ways that we cannot foresee. Compliance with the multitude of regulations issued by federal, state, provincial and local administrative agencies that may apply to the Company can be burdensome and costly. To date, the Company has not been impacted by these laws and regulations.

Research and Development Expenditures

In the years ending December 31, 2023 and 2022 we incurred research and development expenditures of $598,810 and $624,564, respectively.

Personnel

As of April 1, 2024, we have six full-time personnel working under consulting agreements.