New Quick-Med Wound Care Technology Now Available to $14 Billion Wound Care Market.
Quick-Med Technologies, Inc. announced today that Derma Sciences has begun selling and shipping BIOGUARD™ barrier dressings to customers. BIOGUARD is the first wound dressing to utilize Quick-Med’s proprietary non-leaching NIMBUS® technology. NIMBUS represents a next generation in advanced wound care and establishes precedent for a multitude of products with this combination of safe and effective properties.
Quick-Med’s unique NIMBUS technology will offer surgeons, wound care clinicians, infection control experts and primary care doctors an important new weapon against the transmission of such virulent bacteria as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). NIMBUS received clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in late February, 2009. It is the first non-leaching antimicrobial available in a wound dressing.
NIMBUS is a platform technology that employs a large polyquaternary biocide which is irreversibly bonded to any of several materials such as cotton, rayon and polyurethane for use in wound care products. NIMBUS, unlike other antimicrobial agents that require release into the wound, does not interfere with wound healing and is not susceptible to originating bacterial resistance.
Derma Sciences separately reported that they have been awarded reimbursement codes for these novel dressings, allowing the products to be reimbursed by Medicare. Ed Quilty, CEO of Derma Sciences, stated “We expect BIOGUARD™ to quickly become one of our most successful new brands to enter into the $14 Billion dollar global wound care market.”
“It’s exciting that this unique technology is now available to assist healthcare professionals in their efforts to reduce bacterial infections,” said J. Ladd Greeno, CEO of Quick-Med. “Derma Sciences has done an excellent job in a short time of scaling up marketing, manufacturing and packaging to stimulate and satisfy surging demand for BIOGUARD,” he added.
NIMBUS is unique in that it is a sterile bacterial barrier that prohibits the transfer of microorganisms into the wound because the microbicidal agent is permanently bound to the dressing. NIMBUS is non-toxic, long-lasting and not blocked by organics such as blood, urine and perspiration. Product labeling has been allowed that indicates various organisms such as MRSA, VRE, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli are killed at levels exceeding 99.999%.
“Traditional wound dressings absorb fluid from the wound and act as a great incubator for bacteria that are shed back into the wound,” says Gregory Schultz, Professor, Institute for Wound Research at the University of Florida and Past President of the Wound Healing Society. “This [NIMBUS] is the first bound, antimicrobial material – rather than delivering an antimicrobial into the wound, it creates a barrier that won’t allow bacteria to penetrate the dressing or grow in the wound fluid.”
NIMBUS poses no danger of bacteria developing resistance, or of releasing toxic material into the wound and impeding the wound healing process. It is a novel antimicrobial technology: bonded and effective even in high concentrations of body fluids.
Source: Quick-Med Technologies
published: June 25, 2009 in: Companies, News, Products, Specialty