Located here in Edmonton, in the TEC Centre on the fourth floor of the downtown Enterprise Square, Exciton has a patented silver-based wound dressing that the company says is more effective medically, is based on better technology, is less toxic, causes zero pain and is less expensive than the current world-wide competition.

Exciton is relatively mature for a startup company.

It has been incorporated since 2001. Founder and President Rod Precht, with University of Alberta chemical engineer Stojan Djokic, received patents for their unique approach to silver-based wound treatments in 2004.

Exciton’s major competitor uses another silver-based wound treatment formula, a formula that Precht actually developed early in his career as a researcher with Westaim Technologies in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.

That product, now owned by global wound-dressing giant Smith & Nephew, is still manufactured in Fort Saskatchewan.

Thanks to a business mentoring relationship with TEC Edmonton, Exciton decided some years ago to hang on to its product rather than sell or license the technology to others.

“With TEC’s help,” says Rod, “we decided the best way for us to go was to create our own product, to control the manufacturing. It’s a tough sales job, but we know the product is proven.”

Today,  a full-time staff of 13 produce Exciton’s trade-marked exsalt SD7 silver-based wound and burn dressing, and the team conducts further research on-site in the TEC Centre.

For all its obvious advantages, with a technology that’s as proven as proven can be, progress is slow. 

“We had sales revenues of less than $50,000 (in the last fiscal year),” says Rod. “Our goal for 2012 is to take that up to $1 million.

"We realize that we’re a technology company, that we’re not sales and marketing people,” says Rod of various bumps on the road when it’s come to marketing exsalt SD7 and a limited number of other products. 

“We’ve made headway – our product has been approved for sale into all American veterans’ hospitals. It’s now being used in two major American burn centres , with 98 more out there in North America and thousands of wound treatment centers throughout the world.

“We’re now in the market for $7 million in financing – mostly to invest in setting up American subsidiaries for sales and marketing.”

The product is not the challenge. Getting it to market, in front of buyers and accompanied by multiple testimonies from enthusiastic wound and burn specialist doctors, is.

Rod is confident, once the sales and marketing arms of Exciton are functioning up to potential, that Exciton will be profitable within three years.

 “We’ve been going down this road for a long time. At this point, we see this company (with its products and the potential for other medical devices) being worth $20 million. If it came to a sale, years from now, we’d like to see our value by then in the $200 million range.”