Mölnlycke Signs New 3-year Technology Contract

       Mölnlycke Health Care (Newtown, Pa) has signed a new technology contract with Novation (Irving, Tex), the supply company of VHA Inc. and the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), for Mölnlycke’s Safetac® soft silicone technology products.
       The contract began April 1, 2005 and ends March 31, 2008. The agreement includes all of the Tendra® products featuring Safetac soft silicone technology and has a potential value to Mölnlycke Health Care of about $5 million over the next 3 years.
       Mölnlycke Health Care has hundreds of independent contracts in the United States including 2 major group purchasing organization (GPO) contracts for surgical products and 7 major GPO contracts for wound care products.
       Novation was established in January 1998 through a combination of the supply programs of VHA and UHC, 2 national healthcare alliances. Novation serves the purchasing needs of more than 2,300 members and affiliates of VHA and UHC. Novation managed more than $23 billion in annual purchases for VHA and UHC members in 2004.
       Visit http://www.molnlycke.net or call Tom Gillespie, Marketing Brand Manager, at 800-882-4582, extension 2480, for more information.

Frost & Sullivan Names Care-Tech Medical Devices Entrepreneurial Company of the Year

       Frost & Sullivan (San Francisco, Calif) will recognize Care-Tech® Laboratories, Inc. with the 2005 Medical Devices Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award at the Excellence in Medical Devices Awards Banquet.
       Care-Tech receives this award for its sound and innovative product range, which covers all segments, including operating room, wound care, physical therapy, bariatric medicine, environmental disinfection, and veterinary medicine.
       Care-Tech invested considerable resources in the creation of infection control products in response to the high failure rates in the treatment and prevention of topical infection with traditional antibiotics and antimicrobial formulations. The products have been mainly developed to relieve gross contamination and prevent topical and nosocomial infection.
       One such product, Techni-Care®, is a collagen-enriched pre- and post-operative solution with topical bactericidal and microbicidal applications for professional degerming. The product’s formulation incorporates a unique molecular structure that gives it a low toxicity rate. This antiseptic can be used in a wide range of applications from wound care to pre-operative preparation. It has also proved to be effective for veterinary procedures and is available as a highly concentrated solution.
       Other antimicrobial brands from the Care-Tech group include Clinical Care® Dermal Wound Cleanser, Care Creme® Antimicrobial Transdermal Cream, and Barri-Care® Antimicrobial Ointment. Such an extensive product portfolio had seen the company grow rapidly at nearly 20% per month in 2004.
       Visit http://www.caretechlabs.com for more information.

EPISCAN I-200 Included in Study to Address Disparity in Treating People of Color for Pressure Ulcers

       Longport, Inc. (Glen Mills, Pa), a medical technology specialist in high-resolution ultrasound imaging, announces it has been informed of a $1.7 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant application for a 3-year collaborative study of pressure ulcer development using the company’s EPISCAN I-200.
       The principal investigator, Dr. Courtney Lyder of the University of Virginia, in collaboration with Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, will explore methods to improve clinical detection of pressure ulcer risk and development in people of color. Dr. Lyder is a professor of nursing, internal medicine, and geriatrics and is the inaugural holder of the University of Virginia Medical Center professorship in nursing. In the past 10 years as a principal investigator or co-investigator, Dr. Lyder has received nearly $7 million in gerontological nursing research and training grants, published 2 books, 50 book chapters, and journal articles. Dr. Lyder is the immediate past president of the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel. He is also a senior consultant to the US Department of Health and Human Services on skin and wound care issues. Dr. Lyder’s motivation for this project is based on his knowledge of research that indicates a significant healthcare disparity whereby Black and Hispanic elders are more likely to develop full-thickness skin loss (stage III and stage IV pressure ulcers) as compared to their White counterparts.
       According to Dr. Lyder, this disparity is likely due to the difficulty of most healthcare professionals to reliably detect the skin changes associated with pressure ulcer development in individuals with darkly pigmented skin. Investigators will use the Longport, Inc. EPISCAN I-200 for identification of ultrasound findings associated with pressure ulcer development to determine more appropriate assessment methods for improved identification of risk for people of color and ultimately to eliminate the current disparity.
       Dr. Lyder said, “Current medical practice involves the examination of a patient’s skin for signs of pressure ulcers by sight. Deep tissue injury is easier to detect on patients with fair complexions but becomes more challenging when the skin contains a high concentration of melanin, which makes the skin dark, making the early detection of pressure ulcers 1 of the few instances in which skin color actually impacts diagnosis. The EPISCAN I-200 offers people of color the same level of early detection and therefore the same opportunity of early treatment as lighter skinned patients have.”
       The National Healthcare Disparities Report for 2003, prepared by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (part of the Federal Department of Health and Human Services), showed a higher incidence of decubitus ulcers among elderly Black patients than among White patients, with patients of Asian or Hispanic ancestry falling in between. Among those 65 and over hospitalized for 4 days or longer, 25.918 White patients per thousand were affected, while Black patients have a 50.254 per thousand rate. Asian Americans had a 26.686 per thousand rate, and Hispanics had a 32.700 per thousand rate. When the data were broken down by income, the report showed that wealthier patients had fewer incidents of pressure ulcers, but the racial distinctions persisted.
       Call 800-289-6863 or visit http://www.longportinc.com for more information.

Medline Signs Supply Agreement with Novation

       Medline Industries (Mundelein, Ill) a privately held manufacturer and distributor of healthcare supplies, announces that it has won 6 new 3-year national agreements with Novation (Irving Tex), the supply company for VHA, Inc. and the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC). These 2 national healthcare alliances represent more than 2,300 healthcare organizations.
       The dual- and multi-source contracts, effective April 1, 2005, cover hundreds of medical and surgical supplies and are expected to generate more than $175 million in sales for the contracted suppliers. The agreements will ensure increased value and millions of dollars in savings to VHA and UHC members.
       Visit http://www.medline.coma for more information.

ImaRx’s SonoLysis™ Enters Phase I/II of Peripheral Arterial Occlusive Disease Trial

       ImaRx Therapeutics Inc. (Tucson, Ariz) announces that the first patient has been treated in a phase I/II clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of SonoLysis™ for the treatment of peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD). SonoLysis, which combines external ultrasound and ImaRx’s proprietary nanobubbles, is designed to clear blood clots quickly, avoiding invasive surgery or use of potentially dangerous lytic drugs.
       In this 12-patient, multicenter trial, 6 patients will receive a 60-minute treatment of SonoLysis (nanobubbles and ultrasound), while the remaining 6 will receive SonoLysis in conjunction with a small bolus of t-PA, a lytic agent that is typically administered to dissolve the blood clots that cause PAOD.
       “Patients receiving the currently approved t-PA therapy for peripheral arterial occlusions are routinely exposed to an infusion of t-PA or other lytic drugs for up to 24 hours. This long infusion time places the patient at risk for bleeding and other complications,” said Dr. Kenneth Ouriel, chairman of the Department of Vascular Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and national study director for the ImaRx trial. “SonoLysis represents a potentially important advance in treating vascular diseases, such as PAOD, as it may increase safety and reduce treatment times by limiting the use of a lytic drug.”
       Visit http://www.imarx.com for more information.

Phage Therapy for Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Stops Many Amputations

       Phage International Inc. (Los Altos, Calif) announces that Phage Therapy Center (PTC), Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, is expanding operations with the opening of Phage Therapy Center, Mexico.
       Infected wounds not responding to antibiotics often result in limb amputations. In the United States, lower-limb amputations for those with diabetic foot ulcers account for approximately 65,000 amputations each year, and those with difficult-to-treat infected wounds are in the hundreds of thousands.
       Phages or bacteriophages are bacteria-specific viruses that invade the bacterial cells. Lytic phages disrupt bacterial metabolism and cause the bacterium to lyse. Like antibiotics, lytic phages have remarkable antibacterial activity.
       “PTC treats antibiotic-resistant infections and has saved people from amputation. Our clinic specializes in situations where bacteriophage therapy tends to be superior to standard antibiotic therapy in the US and Western Europe. Conditions treated include diabetic foot ulcers, trophic ulcers, osteomyelitis, bedsores, burns, gingivitis, parodontosis, stomatitis, and drug-resistant infections…We are proud to be able to bring Phage Therapy technology to Latin America. Bacteriophage technology has proven to be successful in dealing with even the most difficult of infections,” said Vakhtang Beridze, PTC Georgia.
       “We are delighted to be involved in helping to commercialize phage technology. The opening of Phage Therapy Center, Mexico is the first step in making Phage Therapy more widely available and is the first clinic to provide Phage Therapy in the Western World. We will soon be providing training programs for western physicians and RN wound care specialists,” said Ronald Goossens, President of Phage International Inc.
       Phage Therapy Center, Georgia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Phage International Inc., is a privately held medical clinic offering bacteriophage therapy to patients from across the globe.
       The company’s focus is bacteriophage human therapy to combat drug-resistant pathogens as well as to provide cost-effective treatment for non-resistant pathogens. The company is in the process of opening a number of clinics.
       For more information, potential patients may visit http://www.phagetherapycenter.com.

ConvaTec Receives Wound Technology and Innovation Award

       Frost & Sullivan presents its 2005 Advanced Wound Management Technology Innovation & Leadership of the Year Award to ConvaTec in recognition of the company’s leadership of the wound management market through consistently innovative products of superior quality.
       ConvaTec’s extensive line of wound care products includes DuoDERM® hydrocolloid dressings, AQUACEL® Hydrofiber® dressings, and Kaltostat® alginate dressings. The newest wound care brands are Versiva® absorbent dressing and AQUACEL® Ag antimicrobial wound dressing for acute and chronic wounds. The introduction of Versiva demonstrates ConvaTec’s pioneering attitude, which is expected to prompt further growth in the moist wound dressings market. ConvaTec pioneered the development of the patented Hydrofiber technology, which is the basis for AQUACEL, AQUACEL Ag, and Versiva.
       With the company’s focus clearly on providing advanced solutions to create high-quality, sophisticated wound dressings and, therefore, meeting the needs of physicians and patients, Frost & Sullivan believes ConvaTec to be the most deserving recipient of the 2005 Advanced Wound Management Technology Innovation & Leadership of the Year Award.
       Visit http://www.convatec.com for more information.

Argentum Medical LLC and Carolina Mills Inc. Announce New Manufacturing Facility

       Argentum Medical LLC and Carolina Mills Inc. announce the start up of a new manufacturing facility, Carolina Silver Technologies (CST). This facility will produce silver-plated yarns and fabrics for fabrication into Argentum Medical’s current Silverlon® brand of wound and burn care dressings as well as other brands to be rolled out later this year.
       Carolina Mills, with more than 70 years in the textile business, brings extensive and highly regarded expertise in precision textile dying, finishing, and spinning and will operate the facility. The combination of Carolina’s textile knowledge and process control expertise and CST’s plating experience, along with Argentum’s wound care knowledge and patented technology, is expected to yield high-quality plated fabric.
       Among several competing silver wound care platforms, Argentum and CST believe the textile option offers the greatest promise. Not only are plated textiles more flexible and programmable for performance, they are also the safest and the most durable of all silver products.
       For inquiries about medical products, contact Gregg Silver at gsilver@silverlon.com or 773-281-3252. For nonmedical applications, contact Bennett Fisher at bfisher@carolinasilvertechnologies.com or 828-879-1064.