Equashield and Palex Medical Expand CSTD Distribution to Portuguese Market

PORT WASHINGTON, New York, October 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Equashield (http://www.equashield.com), a leading provider of Closed System Transfer Devices (CSTDs) for hazardous drugs, announced today that its Spanish distributor, Palex Medical, will expand distribution of Equashield's CSTDs through its Portuguese operation, LusoPalex Lda.

Following Equashield's successful entry into the Spanish market with Palex Medical SA, the company will expand its current relationship with the distributor to bring its CSTD to Portugal, a market that has not yet adopted the specialized syringes for safe handling of hazardous drugs.

"When we introduced Equashield's CSTD to the Spanish market, there was low awareness of the need for closed systems," remarked Adela Turienzo, Marketing Manager for Palex Medical SA. "We have seen a significant shift over the past two years, as hospitals that were using other systems shifted to Equashield for its superior ease-of-use. Other hospitals that were not using any CSTD came to understand the necessity for these devices. We anticipate a similar outcome in Portugal as the market becomes educated on the hazards associated with exposure to antineoplastic agents."

In a 2014 study conducted in two Portuguese hospitals, researchers analyzed 327 wipe samples to test for surface contamination of three drug surrogates. In 121 (37%) of the samples, it was possible to detect and quantify at least one of the three drug surrogates, and an additional 28 samples (8.6%) indicated that more than one drug surrogate contaminated the surface in both hospitals, primarily in administration areas. Researchers recommended that specific safety measures be taken to protect workers.

"There is a clear and present danger to hospitals and healthcare facilities not using closed systems for both compounding and administration of hazardous drugs. That's why new regulations are coming into effect in the United States, such as USP 800, which mandates CSTD-use for hazardous drug administration," explained Adi Shor, VP Sales ROW for Equashield. "We are confident in our strong partnership with Palex Medical. We want to work with them to help educate the Portuguese market, and improve the current safety practices of healthcare practitioners in pharmacy and nursing."

About Palex Medical  

Palex Medical is a leading supplier of medical devices, supplies and equipment for the hospital sector in Spain. Palex's subsidiary, LusoPalex, is also a major medical supplier in neighboring Portugal. Palex has extensive experience in the marketing and distribution of healthcare products from major international companies, all of which bring interesting innovations to their respective fields.

Palex Medical has extensive knowledge of the market, with more than 60 years of experience, and has made important contributions in fields such as cardiac surgery and interventional therapies, orthopedics, minimally invasive surgery, hospital automation, pharmacy, oncology, disposable material and home therapies. Palex accredits its business successes to its long-lasting relationships with the companies it represents and their customers.

Currently, Palex Medical has work centers in Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon, and has a team of 400 professionals specialized in providing advanced solutions to its customers.

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