PRINCETON, N.J., May 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Derma Sciences, Inc. , a provider of advanced wound-care products, announced today that the Wound Healing Society has recognized one of the company’s leading development products -- its barrier gauze line of dressings featuring the NIMBUS(R) technology -- with the Society’s prestigious Blue Ribbon Award. The award, which was presented at the recent Symposium on Advanced Wound Care and Wound Healing Society’s 21st Annual Meeting, recognized the outstanding abstract entitled: “Absorbent Microbicidal Wound Dressing Material with Protease Inhibition Properties.” The abstract was sponsored by Quick-Med Technologies and the University of Florida at Gainesville.
Derma Sciences CEO, Ed Quilty, stated, “We believe these gauze-based dressings -- upon their marketing clearance from the FDA -- will represent the first real fusion of traditional and advanced wound-care technologies. As gauze-based dressings, they will remain cost-effective for hospitals and other wound-care facilities. With their advanced microbicidal and protease inhibiting qualities, the dressings will be used on both acute and chronic wounds at risk of infection, a growing concern in the healthcare industry.”
The number of hospital admissions for MRSA has increased rapidly over the last decade, with a 300 percent increase in 2005 over that of 2000, and a 1000 percent increase over that of 1995. In 2005 in the United States alone, 368,600 hospital admissions for MRSA resulted in 18,650 deaths. The number of MRSA fatalities in 2005 surpassed the number of fatalities from hurricane Katrina and AIDS combined and is substantially higher than fatalities at the peak of the U.S. polio epidemic. Roughly 42 percent of MRSA infections are considered hospital acquired. Of 30 million operations performed annually in the US, 900,000 are complicated by surgical site infections resulting in costs of up to $10 billion. Beginning this year, hospitals will no longer be reimbursed for their costs associated with treating these hospital-acquired infections. The death rate, length of stay, and cost of treating patients with MRSA are more than double other hospital admissions.
“This marks the third blue ribbon received by the QMT Research Center in the past three years, and it represents recognition by our peers of the quality of work done by our research team,” said Dr. Gerald Olderman, Vice President of Research & Development for Quick-Med Technologies. “This work will ultimately form the basis of the development of unique wound-dressing products that are targeted at reduced risk of infections and speedier healing.”
Experimental results demonstrate the capacity of a NIMBUS wound dressing to deliver not only strong antimicrobial efficacy but also to bind proteases preferentially ionically and sequester them within the wound dressing. This strategy permits the control of microbes and the suppression of protease activity without leaching any material into the wound bed, thus eliminating the associated interference with the wound-healing process.
The Wound Healing Society offers the Blue Ribbon Industrial Research & Development Award to recognize the best product-oriented research performed by research and development scientists within the corporate world. This year, a total of 11 blue ribbons were awarded including 2 to teams from Quick-Med Technologies. Other participants at the SAWC/WHS event were prominent companies such as Johnson & Johnson Wound Management, 3M Healthcare, Kinetic Concepts, Inc., and Healthpoint, Ltd., as well as leading educational institutions such as the Harvard Medical School, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
The project team was led by Bernd Liesenfeld[1] and includes Gregory Schultz[1,2], John Aseke[2], Olajompo Moloye[2], William Toreki[1], Roy Carr[1], David Moore[1], and Gerald Olderman[1]. ([1]Quick-Med Technologies; Inc.; [2]University of Florida)
About the Wound Healing Society
The Wound Healing Society is a non-profit organization composed of clinical and basic scientists. The Society provides a forum for interaction among scientists, physicians, licensed practitioners, industrial representatives and government agencies. Founded in 1990, the Society is recognized among professionals and government agencies as the leading scientific organization focused in this area of wound healing. The Society publishes the leading journal in this area, Wound Repair and Regeneration.
About Quick-Med Technologies, Inc.
Quick-Med Technologies, Inc. is a life sciences company that is developing innovative technologies for the healthcare and consumer markets. For more information, see: http://www.quickmedtech.com.
About Derma Sciences
Derma Sciences is a global manufacturer and marketer of advanced wound-care products. Its key product, MEDIHONEY, is sold throughout the world by Derma Sciences and Comvita New Zealand -- the licensor of the patented honey-based technology -- and is the leading brand of honey-based dressings for the management of wounds and burns. The product has been shown to be effective in a variety of wounds and burns, and was recently the focus of a large-scale randomized controlled trial on leg ulcers. Derma has two products in development: the NIMBUS technology based line of barrier gauze dressings, and DSC127, the company’s novel angiotensin analog for accelerated wound healing and scar reduction. The barrier technology was licensed from Quick- Med in Q1 of 2007 and is pending its initial FDA marketing clearance. DSC127 was licensed from The University of Southern California in Q4 of 2007 and is entering into a Phase II study, with anticipated initial patient enrollment to begin in Q3 of 2008. For more information about Derma Sciences, Inc., visit its home page on the Internet at http://www.dermasciences.com.
CONTACT: Edward J. Quilty, Chairman and CEO of Derma Sciences Inc.,
+1-609-514-4744, equilty@dermasciences.com; or Investors, Rudy Barrio,
r.barrio@allencaron.com, or Media, Brian Kennedy, brian@allencaron.com,
both of Allen & Caron Inc, +1-212-691-8087, for Derma Sciences, Inc.
Web site: http://www.dermasciences.com/
http://www.quickmedtech.com/
