Curative Health Services Signs Contracts to Open 12 New Wound Care Center® Programs

       Curative Health Services Inc. (Nashua, NH) announces the signing of 12 Wound Management ProgramSM contracts in 2005. These 12 hospitals, located in California, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas, have partnered with Curative to offer state-of-the-art outpatient Wound Care Center programs and in many cases other continuum of care services within the communities they serve. Each location will offer advanced technologies and proven clinical protocols in the treatment of chronic, nonhealing wounds.
       Curative’s unique continuum of wound care service meets patient needs in different sites of service and attracts heightened interest from hospitals looking to build their business clinically and financially.
       Visit http://www.curative.com for more information.

Second Study with Bosentan (Tracleer) Demonstrating a Statistically Significant Reduction of New Digital Ulcers in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis

       Actelion Ltd (Allschwil, Switzerland) announces the release of preliminary results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, multicenter, 190-patient Phase III study, RAPIDS-2, with the dual endothelin receptor antagonist bosentan (Tracleer®) in systemic sclerosis patients suffering from digital ulceration.
       Preliminary analysis indicates that the primary endpoint of reduction in the occurrence of new digital ulcers during the 6-month treatment period was statistically significant. This result confirms the positive findings from an earlier trial, RAPIDS-1.
       The study RAPIDS-2 also evaluated the effect on time to healing of existing digital ulceration in this patient population. There was no difference in time to healing between patients receiving placebo and those receiving bosentan. The safety profile of bosentan in this study was comparable to that observed in previous clinical trials and post-marketing experience with Tracleer.
       Actelion will now fully analyze the data with a view to discussions and filings with regulatory authorities worldwide. Results will also be presented at key international scientific congresses and will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
       Visit http://www.actelion.com for more information.

National Healing Corporation and Ohio State University Launch Study to Screen Human Genome

       A new study seeks to discover clues as to why some wounds heal and some do not.
       Chandan Sen, PhD, who leads The Ohio State University Comprehensive Wound Center, will direct the study together with plastic surgeon Dr. Gayle Gordillo and genomics expert Dr. Sashwati Roy. The study aims to screen the human genome to identify patterns of gene expression in vascular cells. Cells will be captured from biopsies collected from wounds that have both responded and not responded to clinical care. The initial focus of the study is diabetic foot ulcers.
       The first patient in the study was enrolled in June 2005 at Ohio State University Hospital East. A biopsy sample of wound tissue is taken from each patient at 2 4-week intervals. Measurements of the wound will also be taken at the time of the first biopsy and at 12 weeks following the second tissue collection. Patient data will then be classified into healing and nonhealing groups with additional classifications based on age, wound type, and other factors. The information collected will be used to generate a database of healing and nonhealing responses across a wide variety of wound types and patient conditions.
       The study is the first since National Healing Corporation became a founding partner of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Wound Center last year. Through the partnership, National Healing Corporation supports product-neutral, multicenter studies with the primary objective of advancing wound care through knowledge driven by research.
       Call Savannah Whaley at 954-776-1999 for more information.