Welcome to the May edition of Below the Knee, your go-to monthly dispatch covering what’s moving, what’s merging, and what’s making waves in wound care, foot & ankle, and limb salvage.

💥 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: The WoundCareFund is now live

www.woundcarefund.com — your new home for:

The Fund - WoundCareFund is the FIRST and ONLY index dedicated to the high-cost, high-growth wound care and limb salvage market.

Innovation Index - A forward-looking view into the next generation of wound care and limb salvage technologies.

Why? Because wound care is a $30B+ iceberg. And we’re mapping what’s below the surface.

📉 From the Fund Floor: May 2025 Market Moves

MiMedx (MDXG) clocked $88M in Q1 revenue (+4% YoY). Surgical leads the charge (+16%), while the wound care side dipped slightly (-2%) due to LCD pain.

Smith+Nephew (SNN) saw Q1 revenue of $1.4B (+3.1%), with wound up 3.8% on foams and NPWT volume. Still a sleeper giant in outpatient.

Aroa Biosurgery (ASX:ARX) delivered a 23% boost in revenue (NZ$84.7M) for FY2025, with Myriad still its MVP. Gross margin: a beefy 83.5%.

Organogenesis (ORGO) reported a 21% revenue drop — a $22M LCD-shaped hole in Q1. Not great, but well signaled.

Solventum (SOLV) posted $2.1B in revenue, up 4.3% organically. Wound held at $448M (+1.5%), but momentum is shifting post-spinout.

AVITA Medical (RCEL) saw a 67% revenue surge ($18.5M), thanks to RECELL GO and its new “GO Mini.” Reps were cut, coverage went up.

Integra (IART) posted Q1 revs of $382.7M (+3.7%), with DuraSorb and Cytal offsetting Tissue Tech’s 9.3% slide.

Zimmer Biomet (ZBH) keeps flexing its Paragon28 acquisition - Sports, Extremities & Trauma up 3.9% in Q1. F&A is now core.

Others on the board:

• Bioventus: Surgical up 7%, post-Misonix. Overall revenue down after rehab exit.

• Sanara MedTech: Quiet quarter, but value-based care push coming.

• Covalon, Spectral, BioStem, Sanuwave: All showing revenue growth and net-positive quarters — small but scrappy players to watch.

The Fund - and May performance

We benchmarked on 5/1/2025 - with a $10,000 investment and per share price of $423.90.

As of 6/1/2025 the fund is down 1.57% and trading at $417.23 with a current value of $9,842.70.

Key players with sharp stock price changes driving results:

Below is the fund, by category, company, current stock price and cap weighting - this is The Fund

🧠 From the Innovation Index

V4 is here — and it’s the sharpest signal yet.

This month, we launched Version 4 of the Wound Care Innovation Market Map and a brand new Innovation Index — now covering over 165 companies, expanded into new adjacent categories that reflect where wound care is heading, not just where it's been.

So what’s changing?

We’ve added cold plasma therapy, AI-driven diagnostics, offloading technology, closure and fixation, and vascular/limb salvage innovators. Think of it as a zoomed-out view of the entire below-the-knee ecosystem — from diabetic foot ulcers to digital surgery platforms.

One standout? Cold plasma therapy is quietly gaining clinical ground. Six companies now populate this sub-sector, with Plasmacure and Adtec Healthcare entering U.S. partnerships and expanding trials. Once written off as exotic tech, these devices are now practical adjuncts to chronic wound care — faster healing, less bioburden, and no pain.

We’ve also recategorized several key players. MolecuLight and WoundZoom have graduated into the new AI Analysis category, as both companies double down on data layers and decision support instead of just imaging.

Meanwhile, Intellicure just launched a CTP Audit Defense module inside its EHR — a direct counterpunch to the current LCD landscape. It’s not just about documentation anymore; it’s about defending revenue in real-time.

The biggest structural shift? Wound closure is back in the spotlight. As more surgical and trauma groups push into outpatient care, tools like Brij Medical’s staple-free closure system, Solventum’s updated skin closure portfolio, and stealth startups like Sylke are rethinking the skin edge.

We also added the Vascular & Limb Salvage cluster — for the first time combining CLI, PAD, and DFU tech into our wound map. This includes companies like LeMaitre, Surmodics, ArtAssist, and smaller players like Tangible Solutions and FlowAid. Because the future of wound care isn’t just local — it’s circulatory.

The innovation heat is rising. And the map just got a lot more interesting.

🔢 The Innovation Index - Segments and Scores

📰 May Market Moves: The News You Shouldn’t Miss

New launches, quiet exits, investor noise, and actual product progress — May was full of movement that matters.

Let’s start with Plasmacure, a Dutch-based cold plasma therapy company, which has officially entered the U.S. commercial scene via a distribution deal with Venture Medical. Cold plasma may finally be crossing the Atlantic with more than clinical curiosity — expect to see first adopters trialing this by summer.

On the digital front, Wound Care Advantage launched MyLuvo, a real-time business intelligence tool for wound centers. Think: Tableau meets wound care — slick dashboards, KPI tracking, and operational benchmarking. In a post-CMS world, this is less a “nice to have” and more a survival strategy.

In big tech, Epic Systems quietly released “AI Launchpad”, opening the door for custom large-language model workflows inside hospital EHRs. It may not be wound-specific today — but give it 6 months. Every AI wound imaging tool on the map just got a new possible integration layer.

Meanwhile, MediWound is executing what looks like a very intentional pre-launch partnership blitz — pairing up with everyone from MiMedx to Solventum and Mölnlycke. Expect to see their proteolytic platform in new dressings and combos soon — it's becoming a foundational layer, not just a brand.

And in a signal that Europe is waking up to chronic wounds, the University of Hull just broke ground on a £48 million national research center focused on pressure ulcers and chronic wounds. UK wound researchers are tired of seeing 4% of their NHS budget vanish into preventable wounds — and they’re building infrastructure to prove it.

Finally, a nod to orthopedics: Treace Medical Concepts got slapped with a class action suit following a stock drop — showing that bunion startups aren’t immune from scrutiny. And Sanara MedTech is gearing up to launch Tissue Health Plus, a data-and-services platform built to support real value-based care in wound clinics. It’s likely to be one of the few products this year that actually changes how clinics operate.

June Spotlights

• Startup to Watch: Sylke — stealth-mode skin edge closure innovator with surgical channel ambitions. Think: the "Zipline" of wound care.

• Underrated Mover: FlowAid — targeting PAD therapy via wearable neuromodulation. Quiet, but with real limb salvage potential.

• On the Rise: Wound Care Advantage’s MyLuvo — turning wound center ops into a dashboard-first model. Serious differentiation if adoption scales.

🚀 Wrap-up

The market’s moving. Innovation is accelerating. And now there’s a map, a scoreboard, and a fund floor that calls it out — no fluff, no lag.

Bookmark it: woundcarefund.com

Follow the signals. Bet on the builders. And keep it Below The Knee.

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