Medline Expands Wound Care Line With New Products and Educational Programs

MUNDELEIN, Ill. -- Medline Industries, Inc., is expanding its wound care line with new gauze sponge products to join its already comprehensive line of traditional and advanced wound care products. Specifically, Medline is introducing a new premium line of non-woven sponges called Avant Deluxe and a cotton and polyester blended gauze sponge called Accu Sorb.

"With the addition of these new products, Medline now has the largest and most comprehensive array of wound care products and clinical services for the health care industry," said Andy Mills, president of Medline. "We offer a full range of traditional and advanced wound care products, on-staff clinicians, wound care educational services, and have 700 sales representatives, including 50 wound care specialists, to meet all of our customers' wound care needs."

Avant Deluxe and Accu Sorb are two products that will help fill a void left by market leader Johnson & Johnson Wound Management (a division of Ethicon, Inc.), which has announced plans to phase out production and marketing of selected general wound care product lines to the healthcare marketplace, including eye pads, sponges, gauze pads, tapes and cleaners, according to a letter to its distributors, of which Medline is one.

Accu Sorb offers the best qualities of cotton sponges (debridement) and non-woven sponges (absorbency and less linting) and puts them into one product. Made from a blend of cotton and rayon, Accu Sorb is available in sterile and non-sterile forms. Accu Sorb's fabric is formed under the same process as J&J's discontinued Mirasorb product.

Avant Deluxe gauze is Medline's new premium line of non-woven sponges that are made up of a unique rayon and polyester blend to provide strength and absorbency. The increased material weight helps to provide a more efficient sponge than our traditional Avant line by reducing the number of sponges that have to be used for each procedure. These non-woven sponges provide increased wicking ability as well as less lint versus the traditional woven sponges. Avant Deluxe is available sterile and non-sterile. Avant Deluxe is similar to J&J's discontinued Nu Gauze product but with improved construction for a cleaner patterns.

By the beginning of the fourth quarter this year, Medline plans to introduce additional new products for its traditional wound care line to further fill the void created by J&J's decision to discontinue certain wound care products. These include Montgomery Straps, Moleskin and Bulkee Lite wound dressings, a more economical version of Medline's popular Bulkee gauze bandages.

To ensure the highest standards of quality, all Medline brand products are manufactured in factories that follow FDA Quality Systems Regulations. All of Medline's woven sterile gauze products are also produced to meet USP Type VII regulations.

To support its products and customer needs, Medline offers a range of services including a toll free hotline called Educare that is supervised by board-certified ET/WOC nurses. Medline also offers educational seminars given in cities across the country as well as over 50 wound care specialists devoted to supplying customers with wound care products, service and educational support.

Source: Medline Industries, Inc.