Originally Published EMDM
May 2003
INDUSTRY NEWS
PVC Compound Prevents Blood Clotting |
| Developed by a German company, a PVC compound that incorporates anticoagulation properties will be distributed by custom compounder Teknor Apex. |
A US-based custom compounder of flexible and semirigid PVC and TPE has acquired the rights to distribute a material developed by Vestolit (Marn, Germany) that prevents blood clotting. The PVC formulation incorporates special molecules that trick the cells into thinking they’re in the presence of heparin, the body’s natural anticoagulant. “In the past, manufacturers have tried to deal with coagulation by coating a device with heparin or a heparin-like substance,” says Peter Galland, medical manager at Teknor Apex (Anaheim, CA, USA), which will market the material. “But coatings are expensive and nonpermanent. What makes this exciting is that it is the first product that incorporates anticoagulation properties directly into the material structure itself, so they can’t be removed or extracted,” says
Galland.
To take advantage of these unique properties, manufacturers will not need to construct a device solely of the patented PVC. Instead, Teknor Apex recommends that they coextrude a thin layer of the bioactive polymer on the inside wall of the device. “This specialized compound costs more than standard medical-grade vinyl,” says Galland. “By limiting it to a thin inner layer, the overall material cost will rise by less than the added cost of most current coating methods.”
Having acquired the rights to distribute the material from Vestolit, Teknor Apex hopes to commercialize the product within two years. After the material receives FDA approval, it could find use in wound-drainage, cardiopulmonary-bypass, catheter, haemodialysis, haemofiltration, dialysis, and blood collection and storage applications. But Galland hints that more uses may also be on the horizon.
“There is some preliminary evidence that the material may also exhibit bacteriophobic and bacteriostatic properties. That would give it additional applications, but we need to research these attributes more thoroughly,” he says.
For more information, contact Teknor Apex Co., Plastics Div., 505 Central Ave., Pawtucket, RI 02861, USA; phone: +1 401 7258000; fax: +1 401 7290166; e-mail:
plastics@teknorapex.com; Internet: www.teknorapex.com.
Zachary Turke
Copyright ©2003 European Medical Device Manufacturer
