7 Oct 2008 07:00
7 OCTOBER 2008
BYOTROL PLC
HEALTHCARE UPDATE
MAJOR TRIAL IN NHS HOSPITAL AND US HOSPITAL GOES SUPER BUG FREE
Byotrol plc (the "Company") is pleased to provide a progress update in the healthcare sector.
In partnership with Synergy Health Plc, who licensed Byotrol's anti-microbial technology, and supporting this deployment into the NHS, the Company is pleased to report it has encouraging interim results from a large scale NHS trial at one of the UK's leading University hospitals.
Byotrol technology incorporated into Synergy's Azo range of Hospital hygiene products, is currently being evaluated at a leading teaching hospital in the North West of England and the study is being supervised by TrusTECH, the NHS's innovation hub in the North West. The purpose of this study is to compare Byotrol with a standard cleaning regime in a clinical setting. This will support the wide scale deployment of Byotrol technology into the NHS in 2009. This trial follows the highly successful study into the performance of Byotrol technology at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 2006.
Preliminary results including twelve weeks of data are planned to be published in early December and according to Richard Deed of TrusTECH, "The early results are extremely encouraging when compared to chlorine based cleaning. One of the biggest challenges facing the NHS at the moment is to find a technology that offers the biocidal performance of chlorine based products without the damage to equipment & fabric associated with using such products. If the results from this study continue to follow the trends shown to date, Byotrol could well be the answer to this challenge."
The Company is also pleased to be able to report that following deployment two years ago of the Byotrol technology in the Monroe Hospital in Bloomington, Indiana, North America, the hospital has recorded no cases of healthcare acquired infection over the past 24 months. The Company believes this is a significant success and demonstrates the power of the Byotrol technology over an extended period of time
Monroe Hospital treats around 13,000 patients annually and would ordinarily be at high risk of healthcare acquired infection (HCAI) because it undertakes 3,000 bone and joint surgical procedures including hip replacements every year, with many of these being undertaken on older patients.
Monroe Hospital is using Byotrol in several ways. All hospital visitors have to sanitise their hands with Byotrol hand foam on entry. Staff have incorporated Byotrol into their hand hygiene regimes and because the product is alcohol free, it does not dry or crack hands. Byotrol is used to clean hard surfaces and impregnated wipes are used to clean high contact surfaces. Additionally, the hospital exterior is sprayed annually with Byotrol which also prevents growth of algae on stonework.
Fred Price, President and Chief Executive Officer, of Monroe said. "With healthcare career roots of 20 years, I have witnessed trends in anti-microbial solutions to protect patients, healthcare providers and the environment. Infection rates have historically been measured by minimising the risk with an acceptable percentage of infection. That is now history at Monroe Hospital and by partnering with Byotrol we have maintained a zero infections environment since opening our doors 24 months ago. I cannot understand why every healthcare entity that comes in contact with patients doesn't use Byotrol? Our patients depend upon us to be "bug" free."
Stephen Falder, Deputy Chairman of Byotrol says, "We are delighted with the achievement at Monroe as well as the interim results we have received with the NHS study in the North West. We now have a clear example of what can be achieved using Byotrol in a demanding healthcare situation. Having two infection free years in a busy hospital shows what can be achieved and will give real hope to those involved in managing down infections in NHS hospitals.
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For further information:
Jim Rothnie
McCann Erickson Communications House
T: 0044 (0)1625 822540
E:jim.rothnie@europe.mccann.com
Philip Davies
Charles Stanley Securities (Nominated Adviser)
T: 0044 (0)207 149 6457