TWC News Update

Devon Medical Announces Global Availability of NPWT Dressing

  Officials at Devon Medical Inc., a medical device manufacturer based in King of Prussia, PA, have announced the worldwide availability of the company’s negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) dressing for treatment of nonhealing wounds on the toes and forefoot.   The dressing kit comprises a spoon-shaped nonwoven dressing pad, a transparent polyurethane skin drape, an adhesive polyurethane suction bell with connection tubing, a silicone gel strip pack, and four nonwoven dressings for use between the toes. Caregivers may use antifungal ointment or powder between the toes and petroleum jelly or ointment on the toenails to prevent them from adhering to the skin drape, officials said.    “We expect our new foot dressing to revolutionize the way caregivers succeed in using negative pressure technology in this anatomical area of the body and hope to give more patients access to the wound healing benefits that NPWT provides,” said Chip Ross, president of Devon Medical. “Caring for wounds on the toes and areas of the feet with negative pressure has traditionally been very difficult, with the challenges being the formation and keeping of a seal throughout treatment as well as skin maceration.”

Joslin Diabetes Center, J&J Form Alliance

  Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, MA, has entered into a partnership with Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ, and its affiliate Janssen Research & Development LLC, Cranbury Township, NJ, to identify and advance early-stage, novel therapeutic projects with potential for commercialization and product development to treat diabetes. The first joint project selected in the alliance will reportedly focus on identifying exercise-related drug targets for developing new diabetes treatments.    “Joslin is uniquely positioned to translate findings in the laboratory into new approaches for treatment of diabetes, and our alliance with Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Janssen Research & Development is an excellent example of how we can move our early discoveries to the clinic with our complementary capabilities,” said Nandan Padukone, PhD, MBA, vice president of commercialization and ventures at Joslin. “We will continue to explore other technologies with Johnson & Johnson Innovation and mechanisms such as venture creation to advance them quickly towards drug development.”   The new alliance is based on pioneering studies by Joslin researchers showing that exercise can train multiple tissues in the body that in turn stimulate metabolic improvements in other tissues.    “The concept of tissue-to-tissue communication has been around for a while, but more recently we have realized that ‘trained’ tissues may communicate to beneficially affect other tissues,” said Laurie Goodyear, PhD, co-head of the Integrative Physiology and Metabolism Section at Joslin and senior investigator on this research presented earlier this year at the American Diabetes Association’s 73rd annual Scientific Sessions.