MedPro Safety Products, Helvoet Pharma sign JDA for PFSS

MedPro Safety Products, Inc. (OTCBB:MPSP), a leading developer of transformational technologies that enable safer medication delivery and blood collection, has entered into a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with Belgium-based Helvoet Pharma for the technical development and commercialization of MedPro’s pre-filled safety syringe (PFSS).

“Our system design provides unique passive safety functionality, and we expect to be able to deliver this product at a competitive price because of the design compatibility with current pharmaceutical industry practices”

MedPro’s PFSS passive safety device is a proprietary pre-filled medicament delivery system that provides automatic safety feature deployment, reducing and potentially eliminating the risk of a needlestick injury. The device can deliver a wide variety of biotech and pharmaceutical products to the patient’s bloodstream and is comprised of two unique parts: (a) a standard glass cartridge that will act as both a pre-filled medicament reservoir and syringe plunger, and (b) a plastic safety syringe that incorporates a fully passive (or automatic) safety deployment system. The glass cartridge will be developed jointly with Helvoet, and inserted into the syringe at the point of use. The PFSS is designed to be compatible with existing filling technology for ease of adoption and operational efficiencies and the glass cartridge is consistent with current industry practice. The intuitive design should also appeal to healthcare workers and providers, as it is estimated that U.S. hospitals alone incur hundreds of millions of dollars of unreimbursed post-exposure testing and treatment expense from accidental needlestick injuries, not to mention the personal and emotional ramifications to the employee and their family.

Pre-filled syringes currently represent a 2.6 billion unit annual market growing at approximately 14% (Pre-filled Syringes Greystone Associates February 2008). In the United States, federal law requires the use of safety products to reduce the risk of needlestick injury and the global marketplace is moving towards implementation of similar requirements. However, there is no fully passive (no activation by the clinical user) pre-filled safety syringe currently commercially available in the U.S. and current estimates indicate that only 15% of the pre-filled market segment has converted to a safety solution.

“Our system design provides unique passive safety functionality, and we expect to be able to deliver this product at a competitive price because of the design compatibility with current pharmaceutical industry practices”, Mr. Walter Weller, President and COO stated. “We are extremely pleased to be partnered with Helvoet in the design of the cartridge and its components. Helvoet is a world class company that maintains component design capabilities as a core competency.”

“Helvoet will provide both critical design expertise, accelerating our time-to-market, and marketing expertise through their relationships with 19 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and with other leading system component providers,” added Craig Turner, CEO of MedPro Safety Products. “And, since our PFSS is not specific to a medicament compound or a specific pharmaceutical company, we believe we can gain accelerated and broader market acceptance than other non-passive solutions currently available in the market.” Mr. Turner concluded.