A Medical Device Daily

Northfield Laboratories (Evanston, Illinois) yesterday reported that it will receive $3.5 million in funding for the continued development of PolyHeme, its human hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier, as part of the FY06 Defense Appropriations Bill recently signed by President Bush.

Northfield is focused on developing an oxygen-carrying resuscitative fluid, PolyHeme, for the treatment of urgent, large volume blood loss in trauma and resultant surgical settings. PolyHeme is a solution of chemically modified human hemoglobin that requires no cross matching and is therefore compatible with all blood types and has a shelf life of over 12 months. Enrollment is currently underway in a pivotal Phase III study of PolyHeme beginning in the pre-hospital setting.

In other grants/contracts news:

• DHL (Plantation, Florida) reported a new three-year contract with Stryker Orthopaedics (Kalamazoo, Michigan), for the transport of all Stryker Orthopaedics' medical devices from Europe to the U.S. using DHL Import Express, a door-to-door service for expediting imports to the U.S. and between third countries.

At company-owned plants in France, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland, Stryker manufactures a variety of medical devices, which it sells and distributes to hospitals and doctors across the world.

“DHL's regulatory expertise has been invaluable in helping us expedite our shipments of medical devices to the U.S., a necessity for patients that so desperately need them,“ said Kevin Harris, director of logistics for Stryker.

With the Import Express service, DHL takes responsibility from pickup to delivery, all for one pre-quoted transportation charge.