Angelini (Rome) and APR (Balerna, Switzerland) said that they have entered into a strategic partnership to support and promote a novel and innovative product developed by APR for the management of a variety of wound conditions such as acute wounds, burns and advanced ulcers including venous and pressure ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers.

The product, characterized by acidic and super-oxidizing features in an easy-to-use formulation, acts by improving the functional conditions of the physiological wound healing process, providing the healthcare professional and the patient with an effective, convenient and patient-friendly treatment option.

The product has been developed based on APR's proprietary technology TEHCLO, enabling the production of acidic and super-oxidizing solutions containing free chlorine species, of which stabilized hypochlorous acid in very high concentration (> 95%).

APR was recently granted the European approval of the product under the name of Nexodyn. Angelini is planning to launch it under the brand name Amuphase to hit the advanced wound care Italian market.

"Our intention is to strengthen our position in the Wound Care therapeutic Area through the offer of new, modern and affordable solutions to healthcare professionals and patients, able to manage life-threating pathologies like diabetic foot and leg venous ulcers," said Fabio De Luca, General Manager of Angelini Pharma Division, ". . . and for this reason we are collaborating with APR to enlarge our portfolio launching AMUPHASE, a product that, we are sure, will ensure depth and ethical image to our hospital portfolio."

In other agreements: DebMed (Charlotte, North Carolina), maker of an electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring system based on the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Five Moments for Hand Hygiene, reported the company's expanded distribution model for 2014. As the result of a recent agreement with Steris (Mentor, Ohio), DebMed will be able to provide healthcare organizations with greater access to electronic monitoring of hand hygiene activity, a reliable method for increasing hand hygiene compliance and preventing the spread of infections.

The DebMed GMS electronically tracks if healthcare workers are cleaning their hands as frequently as they should, and provides real-time feedback to staff to help improve hand hygiene compliance. While hand hygiene compliance in healthcare remains below 40%, cleaning hands is still the number one way to prevent the spread of infections, particularly in healthcare settings where one in 20 patients will contract a healthcare-associated infection, resulting in 99,000 deaths a year in the U.S. alone.

The DebMed GMS uses electronics that capture hand cleaning activity from soap and hand sanitizer dispensers, and can be deployed with either DebMed dispensers or a hospital's existing dispensers. By offering a flexible range of deployment options, hospitals and other healthcare facilities that may have a preference for one hand hygiene product over another are able to implement the most reliable method of electronic hand hygiene monitoring while still using the skin care products of their choice.

DebMed has created the system to promote a high level of employee acceptance because it monitors compliance at the group level rather than requiring staff to wear badges that track their individual compliance. Group monitoring encourages team collaboration, and is recognized by many infection preventionists and industry thought leaders as being more effective in changing behavior than tracking individuals' actions, which can be seen by staff as punitive or an invasion of privacy. The system also includes an online toolkit of educational materials on proper hand hygiene protocols and customizable reminder tools to help healthcare facilities drive and reinforce behavior change.