Headlines

As reported by The Hartford Courant, March 28 2006.

Feds' Anti-Terror Grant Strategy Could Aid Z-Medica

By Paul Marks

The Department of Homeland Security has decided that the anti-terrorism money it gives to states can be spent to stock ambulances and police first-aid kits with blood-clotting agents such as the one made by Wallingford-based Z-Medica Corp.

That decision should help boost sales for a growing company that expects to expand its workforce this year from fewer than 20 to about 30, said Jeff Horn, Z-Medica's chief operating officer.

"It just reinforces and strengthens the confidence in our product," Horn said. "It means more credibility."

By adding "hemostatic agent" to its list of authorized equipment and supplies, the Homeland Security agency is allowing its grant money to be used by states and municipalities for products such as Z-Medica's QuikClot and HemCon, a competing product made by HemCon Inc., of Portland, Ore. Both products are being used by the U.S. military for wound treatment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Steven Llanes,a spokesman for Homeland Security, said hemostatic agents were added to the authorized purchase list on the recommendation of authorities from various states who knew of their effectiveness. He explained that the list is posted on the Responder Knowledge Base, a website (www.rkb.mipt.org), sponsored by the agency's Office for Domestic Preparedness to provide police, ambulance technicians and other emergency responders with a single online source of information.

Connecticut has received almost $140 million in Homeland Security funding during the past four years, Llanes said.

QuikClot is the brand name for a granular substance invented by Frank Hursey, the company's founder, that is used to stanch the flow of blood from serious wounds by stimulating clotting.

The company also sells QuikClot in 5-by-7-inch bags of porous surgical fabric that can be packed into wounds and bound in place until the patient is taken to an operating room. That product, QuikClot ACS, is priced at about $40 for a package of two bags.

Raymond Huey, Z-Medica's CEO, said the company would like to sell its products to the Connecticut State Police and various municipalities, but has no contracts yet.

At the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, a big believer in QuikClot is Benjamin Sonstrom, leader of the specially trained medical team that supports police SWAT teams. He said he and five other paramedics on the "tactical rescue team" carry packets of the product in their vests for use in cases of severe bleeding.

Sondstrom said he got samples of QuikClot from the manufacturer, but plans to have his team order more.

"What convinced me," he said, "is both QuikClot and HemCon have had numerous good outcomes" when used on the battlefield.

Arresting bleeding may be difficult should a police officer, bystander or suspect be shot in a dangerous situation and the threat of further violence remains, Sondstrom said. "It's for a severe situation, something we would call `care under fire,'" he said.

Horn said Z-Medica, founded in 2002 with three employees, has made money in each of the past three years, and has set up manufacturing facilities in Wallingford and New Britain. He would not release revenue figures for the privately owned company, saying only that sales have grown from year to year.

Most sales have been to the military, but QuikClot is also being carried by federal air marshals, the U.S. Capitol Police and a sheriff's department in the county around Tampa, Fla., Horn said. He said the company's business plan calls for eventual sales to hospitals for use in emergency rooms and operating rooms.