AcryMed is a development and manufacturing company focused on the introduction of novel medical products that help heal wounds or reduce infections. AcryMed develops products from its proprietary technologies through clinical investigation, regulatory clearance, and manufacturing development. The company then seeks marketing partners around the world who can sell and distribute AcryMed’s products. Alternatively, AcryMed also licenses its technologies to companies that want to enhance their own products.

AcryMed, Inc. was founded in 1993 by Dr. Bruce Gibbins. Dr. Gibbins obtained his Ph.D. in Bacteriology and Public Health from Washington State University, and then spent several years as a professor of microbiology in New Zealand. While there he participated in the founding of a company that developed the prototype for what would become AcryMed’s first product. Realizing that commercial success required being based in a larger market, Dr. Gibbins returned to the U.S. to found AcryMed and purchased the patents from the New Zealand company.

Under Dr. Gibbins’ direction, AcryMed substantially enhanced the original technology and developed a proprietary skin substitute material branded Microlattice®. This became the foundation for the company’s first commercial product, an advanced moist wound care dressing marketed initially under the AcryDerm brand and currently in the U.S. by Smith & Nephew under the FlexiGel® brand. Unlike other advanced dressings, FlexiGel is able to manage moisture levels in the wound under a wide range of conditions. If the wound is too dry it donates moisture and if it is too wet it absorbs excess moisture to provide a healthy environment for healing wounds.

In addition to this moisture management capability, Microlattice matrix is also an optimal vehicle to deliver active agents to the body over an extended time. A wide range of active agents have successfully been integrated into Microlattice to produce devices that deliver therapeutically significant quantities of agents ranging from elemental oxygen to protein growth factors. The first commercially available products using this approach are the SilvaSorb® silver antimicrobial dressings and gel which incorporate AcryMed’s proprietary stabilized silver chemistry. SilvaSorb is sold in North America by Medline industries and in China by Guongdong Pharmaceuticals Import and Export Corporation. AcryMed is currently seeking additional geographic distribution partners for SilvaSorb.

AcryMed’s scientists have developed and patented two other silver antimicrobial technologies for treating medical devices by direct incorporation or surface impregnation. The company is currently investigating partnership opportunities with medical device companies desiring a state of the art antimicrobial claim.