Thursday, September 25, 2008

Navy awards Z-Medica $2M for nano-bandages

By Mass High Tech

Medical products maker Z-Medica Corp. was awarded a $2 million contract form the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to conduct clinical trails of the Wallingford, Conn.-based company’s wound treatment, QuickClot Combat Gauze. The product is made up of surgical gauze woven together with synthetic nano-sized materials that can stop bleeding in seconds, the company said.

The trials will be conducted at John Hopkins University in Baltimore; the University of Miami; the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester; Vanderbilt University in Nashville and Hartford Hospital in Conn.

They study will test the product for small entry, large exit bullet wounds, typically experienced by soldiers in battle, according to the company.

The company also stated that the U.S. Department of Defense Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care has already selected the product to stop bleeding in soldiers with deep “tourniquet” wounds for the entire U.S. military. Z-Medica has received 510(K) clearance from the FDA.