In the gritty reality of warfare, where every second can be a matter of life and death, MediWound, an Israeli beacon of biopharmaceutical innovation, has thrown a lifeline to our boys in the field.

They’ve recently bagged a hefty $6.7 million on top of an initial $6.5 million, bringing the war chest to a whopping $14.4 million.

This isn’t just money; it’s a new dawn in treating burns that doesn’t involve a knife and peeling away layers of burnt flesh.

A Partnership Forged in Urgency

The US Department of Defense (DoD), in cahoots with the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC), has bet big on MediWound’s NexoBrid.

It’s a concoction, a brew of enzymes that doesn’t just treat a burn; it blasts the beast head-on. Healing them with a substance that is found in, of all places, the juice and stems of pineapples.

fire fighting training exercise
During a fire fighting training exercise (Image source: DVIDS)

According to its website, NexoBrid is a concentrated enzyme-based solution containing bromelain, an easy-to-use topical product designed to swiftly remove eschar, a crucial step in treating severe burns. Forget those old-school cut-and-peel surgeries or half-hearted ointments.Talk about painful, burns are the very definition of painful.

It’s proven to efficiently remove eschar within four hours without harming healthy tissues, making it the go-to rapid-fire (no pun intended), non-invasive fix for severe burns—like tearing down the barricades that eschar, a hellish layer of dead tissue, builds over a soldier’s wounds.

The Fire Phobia: A Soldier’s Reality

Let’s not mince words here. Fire is the demon every soldier dreads. The swirling orange beast from which we struggle to free ourselves.