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Bandage is built to slow bleeding
A Winston-Salem company is one of the manufacturers
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Published: May 25, 2008
An innovative fabric has arrived to help consumers, particularly emergency responders, in treating the heavy bleeding that they often see.
Entegrion Inc., a biomedical group based in Research Triangle Park, has received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for over-the-counter sales of its fabric, Stasilon.
The product accelerates the clotting of blood in external wounds through the use of bamboo and glass fibers in a woven fabric. The company is trying for FDA clearance on surgical pads.
"This is a remarkable technology," said Stan Eskridge, the president and chief executive of Entegrion. "It's so powerful in controlling problem bleeding that it was approved by the FDA for use by medical professionals, yet so easy to use that it's also approved for Dr. Mom.
"You simply open the package, apply the dressing to the wound and maintain firm pressure."
One manufacturer of the bandage is Carolina Narrow Fabrics, which is based in Winston-Salem.
Carolina Narrow was chosen because of its fabric expertise, excess capacity and innovation, Eskridge said.
One potential hurdle for Entegrion attracting mainstream consumers is the current price of the product, versus lower-cost gauze products already on the market.
A box of 10 4-inch bandages retails for $90, while a box of 10 2-inch bandages retails for $70. Entegrion said it is negotiating with distributors and hopes to have its bandages on retail shelves by the end of the year. A box of 4-inch and 2-inch-square bandages can be purchased directly from Entegrion via e-mail at sales@entegrion.com, or by phone at 877-877-2533, ext. 1840.
Joe Dacorta, the chief technical officer for Entegrion, said that the FDA market clearance for over-the-counter sales "will greatly expand the addressable market for the Stasilon textile family of products, particularly in the consumer retail, industrial health and sports-medicine markets."
Eskridge acknowledges that Entegrion has a major branding challenge regarding Stasilon.
"We're trying to get our product into the hands of as many doctors as we can," Eskridge said. "We know they want evidence that the product is doing what we say it does, and is not causing harm."
Scientists have known for years that blood begins to clot when put in contact with glass. Stasilon serves as a low-cost dressing for wounds that performs better than gauze. The fabric also has a better chance of keeping the clot intact when the dressing is removed.
Entegrion said it invented Stasilon in consultation with the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
"The technology addresses the military's critical need for effective, but low-cost, hemostatic wound dressings, as severe blood loss accounts for 50 percent of all battlefield deaths," the company said. "Severe blood loss is also a contributing factor in 50,000 civilian deaths each year."
Stasilon has been tested on the battlefields in Iraq for several months.
In recent weeks, the product has been made available to emergency workers through a distribution agreement with Southeastern Emergency Equipment Distributors of Wake Forest.
Stasilon also is being tested at the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.
"We're studying the bandage to see if it is a better product than cotton gauze for reducing blood loss," said Dr. Bruce Cairns, the director of the burn center and an associated professor of surgery/microbiology and immunology at UNC School of Medicine.
"When you remove a burn dressing to put down a skin graft, there will be blood loss, sometimes considerable blood loss," Cairns said. "Because the bandage is designed not to stick to the blood clot, it lessens the chance of reopening the wound.
"The product is not a magical solution for stopping bleeding immediately, but it has the potential to stop it quicker and longer than cotton gauze. Whether you are a ballplayer, a mother or emergency personnel, anything that can get that accomplished quicker is going to be well received."
Carolina Narrow, which opened in 1928, abandoned most traditional textile products in recent years to focus on niche products. Besides Stasilon, it makes fabrics and tapes for electric and power motors, aerospace and aircraft, composite fabricators, webbing, dyed fiberglass, boats and tools.As part of the transition, the manufacturer closed a plant in Sparta in December 2000, cutting 103 jobs. It has reduced its overall work force from 400 employees to about 150.
"Anything that we can do to add production, to make up for what we're losing to global competition, is going to help keep us in business," said Jeffrey Freeman, a vice president of operations and a third-generation executive for Carolina Narrow. Freeman has said that the commercial expansion of Stasilon is not likely to lead to new jobs initially.
Entegrion's reputation in the state's biotech sector is rising.
The company was one of three showcase presenters at last week's Biotech 2008 conference held in Winston-Salem.
"Entegrion was chosen due to its cutting-edge technology and its great potential to make a considerable impact within the life-science industry," said Jessica Hegele, the senior manager of conference for the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, the organizer of the Biotech conference.
Industry officials said that Entegrion could collaborate eventually with the Institute of Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
The institute was named April 17 as a recipient of a five-year, $42.5 million grant from the U.S. Defense Department that focuses on the use of regenerative treatment for lost limbs or severe burns — the signature injuries of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Regenerative therapies use the body's natural healing powers to restore or replace damaged tissue and organs.
Institute officials said last week that there are no current plans to collaborate with Entegrion, but Eskridge said that "since there is much overlap in our product and their research, we feel there is the potential to assist in regenerative tissue development."
■ Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.
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