Medline launches new film dressing – Medline Industries Inc.’s Arglaes, a new antimicrobial film dressing – Product Announcement
Medline Industries Inc. is putting considerable time and energy into an educational effort in support of Arglaes, a new antimicrobial film dressing the company calls “a breakthrough in the fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria.” The Mundelein, Ill.-based manufacturer/distributor introduced the new product Oct. 13 at the 83rd clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons in Chicago.
Arglaes is designed to control antibiotic-resistant bacteria in wounds and prevent bacterial contamination over a sustained period of time. Jonathan Primer, president of Medline’s dermal management systems division, says Arglaes is a product unique to the wound care market. The company is embarking on an educational campaign aimed at infection control clinicians as well as skin care specialists, central line team members and general surgeons.
Primer calls Arglaes (Latin Ar for silver and glaes for glass) a cross between a skin care and an infection control product. He says Arglaes is the first film dressing in the U.S. to include silver compounds in a technology known as Slow Release Polymers or SRPs. This technology enables the dressing to exert a sustained antimicrobial and antibacterial effect for up to seven days, several days longer than current products.
Arglaes was developed and is manufactured by Maersk Medical Ltd., a British company that was instrumental in creating the alginate market in past years. Dr. David Mitchell of Maersk, a recognized leader in the specialty, is credited with the advances leading to the new product. Medline plans to put Mitchell’s knowledge to use in answering questions about Arglaes on the World Wide Web.
Medline is assembling a small, dedicated sales force to sell Arglaes in hospital accounts. In addition, the company is also training its 500-plus member general sales team to sell what is considered a highly clinical product that requires a high degree of clinical sophistication. Each Medline field sales rep carries a personal computer with CD-ROM capability that allows each rep to give presentations in hospital accounts.
In addition to the ACS meeting last month, Primer says the company will feature Arglaes in “every meaningful trade show in skin care and infection control.” Journal ad placements will also be made in skin care and infection control publications.
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