Battelle and Halyard Health (NYSE:HYH) snagged a $14.4 million contract from the U.S. Navy to develop a combination drug/device medical wrap that can help protect and save severely injured limbs, both at home and in the battlefield.
The Office of Naval Research awarded the 4-year contract as part of its Acute Care Cover for Severely Injured Limbs project, or ACCSIL, which begins with design concepts already in development. Getting a prototype by late 2017 is the initial goal.
Ohio-based Battelle named its system the Protective Oxygenating Wrap for Enhanced Recovery, or POWER. Plans call for using “enhanced” wound dressing materials, “active medical ingredients” and oxygen in 1 wrap/drug delivery device that could be used along with a tourniquet. It is envisioned as light and portable, the company said.
“Successful development of this system will provide military medics a solution currently unavailable to them,” Kelly Jenkins, a director at Battelle’s Advanced Materials Group, said in prepared remarks. The technology would also be useful in situations involving urban violence and domestic terrorism, Jenkins added.
ACCSIL is encouraging development of a medical device that boosts the chances of saving the most possible tissue, for military and eventually civilian use. Tim Bentley, program manager for the Office of Naval Research, that such a device would be carried by corpsmen and medics, applied to patients’ injured limbs on the battlefield. He added that it would be lightweight and also help keep the wound fresh and maintain tissue condition for up to 72 hours.
This “is particularly important as we plan for future scenarios where prolonged field care will be required,” Bentley said in prepared remarks.
Battelle has at least 1 other medical device project underway involving a government grant. The company is also working with a team of subcontractors on a $23 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency project to develop a device that can treat sepsis.
Separately, Battelle is also developing a brain-implanted microchip designed to help quadriplegic patients use their thoughts to control paralyzed limbs. In April, the journal Nature published their work involving Ian Burkhart, who in 2014 became the 1st patient to achieve motor control of his paralyzed arms and hands using his thoughts.
Halyard Health, meanwhile, is based in Alpharetta, Ga. The company in April spent $174 million to buy Corpak, a developer and maker of branded enteral access devices.
