The foreskin trade
Most American circumcisions happen in hospitals, on newborns — and the removed tissue doesn't go in the bin. Neonatal foreskin is a prized raw material. Here's who profits, with sources.
Who profits
One newborn procedure, many industries — filter by where the tissue ends up.
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Organogenesis
🇺🇸 United StatesDermagraft — a skin substitute used to treat diabetic foot ulcers — is manufactured from fibroblasts derived from newborn foreskin tissue.
Lonza
Lonza supplies human neonatal dermal fibroblasts — isolated from newborn foreskin — as research and bioproduction cell lines.
ATCC
The American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) distributes neonatal foreskin fibroblast cell lines for laboratory research.
SkinMedica
🇺🇸 United StatesA widely sold anti-ageing serum built on growth-factor media (NouriCel) that was originally derived from cultured neonatal foreskin fibroblasts.
Sigma-Aldrich, Thermo Fisher & others
Major life-science suppliers list neonatal foreskin fibroblasts in their catalogues for drug testing, vaccine work, and laboratory research.
Viral figures such as “one foreskin is worth $190 million” are activist estimates and disputed — we don't assert them. The point isn't a precise price; it's that a non-consensual procedure on a newborn feeds a real, sourced supply chain.
Which countries profit?
The trade is overwhelmingly US-centric — neonatal hospital circumcision is what feeds the supply chain. Country profiles flag the commercial use where it's documented.