Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Z-Medica Signs Distribution Agreement With Biomedica

Z-Medica Corporation, a medical device company developing innovative hemostatic agents, today announced that it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Biomedica, a leading Central European medical device distributor, for the hospital and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) markets in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland. Biomedica has strong relationships in the fields of cardiology, cardiac surgery, orthopedics and trauma and general surgery, among other specialties.
QuikClot® products received CE Mark from the European Union in November 2009 and the company has been negotiating distribution agreements with a series of best-of-breed medical device distributors such as Biomedica in European markets since then.
“We are very pleased that we have signed this distribution agreement with Biomedica because of their strong relationships, local sales presence and customer support in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland,” said Brian Herrman, Chief Executive Officer, Z-Medica. “Their focus on cardiology, orthopedics and trauma will be key to getting QuikClot into the hands of surgical practitioners and first responders for the first time in this region, so that they and their patients can benefit from QuikClot’s ability to achieve hemostasis safely and rapidly.”
QuikClot is a surgical gauze impregnated with kaolin, an inert mineral with no known contraindications, and can achieve hemostasis in severe bleeding situations in as little as three minutes. QuikClot is widely used throughout several clinical specialties, including cardiology, interventional radiology, critical care, dermatology, emergency medicine, orthopedics and OB/Gyn, and after months of testing against 12 other hemostatic products in the marketplace, the military version of the kaolin gauze (“Combat Gauze”) was chosen as the exclusive product for use by all US Military Forces in 2008. It continues to be the exclusive product used by all USA military forces for first line treatment of bleeding hemorrhage.
“We are very pleased to add QuikClot to our product portfolio,” said Dr. Stefan Marenzi, Managing Director of Biomedica. “We believe that the product will be well-received by our clients across several different specialties.”

St. Jude Says Data Reveals Excellent Sealing Performance Of Angio-Seal

(RTTNews) - Medical devices companySt. Jude Medical, Inc. (STJ: News ) Tuesday said subset data results for the Angio-Seal Evolution Vascular Closure Device Registry reaffirmed the excellent sealing performance of the Angio-Seal Evolution vascular closure device in patients undergoing routine diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization procedures.
The Angio-Seal Evolution device is designed to enable physicians to quickly and effectively seal femoral artery punctures made during minimally invasive catheter-based procedures.
The company noted that the results validated the exceptional performance of the device after being successfully deployed in 99.7% of procedures and with hemostasis achieved in 97.8% of these procedures by the device.
This new subset analysis strengthens those findings by demonstrating no significant difference in deployment success or hemostasis for patients with challenging conditions that might negatively impact device performance, such as obesity and scar tissue at the vascular access site, the company added.