CHAPTER 5: Electrospun Fibers for Advanced Wound Care: Moving from Novel Lab-scale Curiosities to Commercial Realities

Over the past 30 years electrospinning of polymer-based solutions for the preparation of continuous ultra-fine fibers has evolved from a lab-scale curiosity to a commercial reality. Although barriers to entry in the market of advanced wound care are high, electrospun fibers represent a new category of materials value addition that can be leveraged with existing products and can also be used to create novel products. This potential has not fully been realized and there is huge capacity for electrospun fiber-based products to be applied in the realization of commercial advanced wound care products. Solution-based electrospinning is a versatile approach to creating nano-scale textile materials with tailored functionality. This chapter describes electrospun fiber developments and applications in advanced wound care and nanomedicine, and looks at modulation of cell–fiber interactions as well as market-related commercialization of electrospun fiber products. Smart formulations and architectures that directly address the indication at the biointerface, the use of a suitable high-throughput electrospinning platform technology and a good understanding of the regulatory path, economic and reimbursement factors and most importantly the user needs from the design phase, will ensure the successful transition of novel electrospun fiber-based wound care product concepts from the lab to commercial production.