New Studies on Hazardous Drug Delivery Confirm Equashield to be Truly Closed System, as Defined by NIOSH

NEW YORK, February 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Equashield, a leading provider of Closed System Transfer Devices (CSTDs) for the safe and simple handling of hazardous drugs, today announced the results of two comparative studies conducted at the University of North Carolina, confirming Equashield's CSTD to be a true leak-free and air-tight CSTD.

The studies, conducted by the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy and presented at the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Meeting in December, compared six CSTDs, with a focus on the ability to both prevent leaks and contain vapors, in compliance with NIOSH's originally suggested definition of a closed system.

The first study - Connector Integrity Testing to Assess the Efficacy of Multiple Closed System Transfer Devices - tested six CSTD variations from four different vendors to compare how devices behave with common chemotherapy drug 5-Flourouracil (5-FU). The drug was transferred using each CSTD, whose membranes were then assessed with a litmus paper test. Most of the tested systems revealed a failure rate of over 80%. Equashield's CSTD maintained a 0% failure rate adhering to NIOSH definition of a leak-proof design.

The second study, based on NIOSH's 2015 proposed testing protocol - Application of Vapor Containment Protocol for Closed System Transfer Devices to Assess Efficacy During Pharmacy Compounding and Administration of Hazardous Drugs -compared the same six CSTDs' ability to contain vapor. Equashield again displayed the ability to contain even the highly volatile vapor, maintaining a contamination level below the NIOSH-recommended 1ppm level.

"These studies have verified Equashield's ability to contain vapors, leaks and aerosols when tested against the originally proposed NIOSH protocol and while utilizing actual hazardous drug compounds," said Marino Kriheli, Co-founder of Equashield. "In all tests to date, Equashield has proven its ability to prevent drug exposure. In doing so, we are able to provide healthcare workers with a higher level of protection than competing closed systems on the market."

About Equashield 

Equashield is a leading provider of a full range of manual and automated solutions to hospitals for the compounding and administration of hazardous drugs.  Equashield's product suite includes EQUASHIELD II, its flagship Closed System Transfer Device (CSTD), and EQUASHIELD® Pro, the first ever closed system drug compounding robot.  Equashield's CSTD is clinically proven to protect healthcare professionals from hazardous drug exposure.  The globally awarded EQUASHIELD^® II covers more routes of exposure than alternative systems by preventing contamination of syringe plungers and drug residuals on connector surfaces, as well as exposure to drug vapors. Studies have shown Equashield's CSTD to be faster to deploy and easier to use than competing systems and the system has passed the proposed 2015 alcohol vapor containment protocol from NIOSH, confirming that it can contain the harshest vapors & emissions. EQUASHIELD is in use by hundreds of hospitals and clinics around the world, and has been both cleared by the FDA under the ONB product code, and substantiated in FDA-cleared labeling as preventing microbial ingress for up to seven days. 

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For more information: http://www.equashield.com

 
Media Contact:
Finn Partners for Equashield
Nicole Grubner
[email protected]
@nicolegrubner
+1-929-222-8011      

SOURCE Equashield