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Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by SelectCobb, the economic development organization of Cobb County.
Cobb County’s growing medical device community is expanding overseas, thanks to SelectCobb’s support for companies participating in interactive, international experiences.
SelectCobb is the economic development organization for Cobb County. It is offering financial support to offset costs for Cobb-based companies registering or setting up booths at the upcoming MEDICA 2024 trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany, Nov. 11-14.
Medical device companies interested in attending MEDICA 2024 must first apply with the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) to be part of a Georgia delegation traveling to the show.
One Cobb startup, ProgenaCare Global LLC, is a trip hopeful, according to John Daniel, the company’s co-founder and executive vice-president of global partnerships and business development.
The innovative Marietta-based company, which extracts keratin from donated human hair to create wound-care products, is applying for a spot in the Georgia delegation to attend MEDICA 2024.
The company began exporting in 2022 and provides its wound-care products throughout Latin America, Africa and other regions where such care is scarce or financially unattainable.
“What was considered waste – discarded human hair from salons – is one of the most plentiful sources of keratin on earth,” Mr. Daniel explains. “We are healing wounds all over the world, the economic way.”
He adds that the company’s flagship product, ProgenaMatrix, is also culturally acceptable, as it is derived from a non-placental human (not bovine or porcine) protein. “This allows us to sell worldwide and meet cultural and religious expectations. There are global opportunities.”
ProgenaCare is already expanding its global reach. The GDEcD named it a 2023 Global Exporter of the Year and a 2023 GLOBE (Georgians Leveraging Opportunities By Exporting) Award recipient. The company has been nominated for the Georgia Bio 2024 Golden Helix Innovation Award.
The Cobb Chamber of Commerce has introduced ProgenaCare to potential healthcare customers throughout Cobb County as part of the company’s membership benefits.
“Their [the chamber’s] support is so greatly appreciated. I can’t tell you how proud we are to be a Cobb-based company, and I feel like things are just getting started,” Mr. Daniel says.
MEDICA is an annual healthcare business and medical technology trade fair attended by some 6,000 companies from 70 countries featuring more than 12,000 products related to lab technology and diagnostics, medical technology and electromedicine, commodities and consumables, physiotherapy and orthopedic technology and IT systems and IT solutions.
To apply to attend the MEDICA 2024 show with the Georgia delegation, visit https://www.georgia.org/event/medica-1.
Contact Amanda Blanton at SelectCobb at ablanton@cobbchamber.org for more information.
