Equashield Begins Implementations of Closed System Compounding Robots in Major International Markets

PORT WASHINGTON, New York, March 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

First implementations of Equashield Pro, the only closed system compounding robot, to take place in Europe, following introduction at upcoming industry trade shows: EAHP, HOPA and ISOPP 

PORT WASHINGTON, New York - March 14, 2018 - Equashield (equashield.com), a leading provider of Closed System Transfer Devices (CSTDs) for hazardous drugs, announced today it has received its first purchase orders for its Equashield Pro closed system compounding robot, with installations starting in Q2 of this year.

"When we introduced the Equashield Pro at ASHP in 2016, we received extremely positive feedback from pharmacy professionals. Since that time, we have refined and improved the safety and efficiency of the Pro, making it ready to enter healthcare facilities worldwide," said Marino Kriheli, Co-Founder of Equashield. "Automation is the natural direction for the hazardous drug compounding industry, and the Pro, which utilizes our EQUASHIELD® CSTD, is ready to provide the safest method for efficiently compounding hazardous drugs."

The first implementations, serving as beta sites for validation, will occur at Rambam Medical Center as well as another major hospital facility. Following initial beta site installations, Equashield will install ten additional robots at leading European hospitals in Austria, Italy, Greece and Spain.

The Equashield Pro is designed to make adoption of advanced automation technologies affordable, easy to fit into hospital pharmacies, and with a footprint and size comparable to a standard Biological Safety Cabinet. The system enables compounding large varieties of patient-specific chemotherapy doses quickly, using optimized process flow by performing multiple tasks simultaneously. The Pro's highly reliable dose verification software reduces the occurrences of medication dosage and identification errors when preparing hazardous drugs.

"The market has expressed a clear need for automation that not only provides a high throughput to manage peak chemotherapy volume, but increases the safety of pharmacy compounding professionals, protecting them from health risks associated with hazardous drug exposure," noted Adi Shor, VP Sales ROW. "Other compounding robots currently available neither provide the level of safety nor the efficiency compared to the Equashield Pro. Furthermore, the Pro allows pharmacists to spend more time with patients and help in making prescription decisions on the nursing floor, all while remotely monitoring pharmacy compounding processes."

Equashield will be exhibiting at EAHP (March 21-23), HOPA (March 21-24) and ISOPP (April 11-13), where attendees can learn more about the Equashield Pro and EQUASHIELD CSTD. Equashield will also host a symposium at ISOPP focused on robotic use in cytotoxic drug handling, as well as the role of the Pro in pharmacy safety.

About Equashield 

Equashield is a leading provider of a full range of manual and automated solutions to hospitals for the compounding and administration of hazardous drugs. Equashield's product suite includes EQUASHIELD II, its flagship Closed System Transfer Device (CSTD), and EQUASHIELD® Pro, the first ever closed system drug compounding robot.  Equashield's CSTD is clinically-proven to protect healthcare professionals from hazardous drug exposure. The globally awarded EQUASHIELD^® II covers more routes of exposure than alternative systems by preventing contamination of syringe plungers and drug residuals on connector surfaces, as well as exposure to drug vapors. Studies have shown Equashield's CSTD to be faster to deploy and easier to use than competing systems, and the system has passed the proposed 2015 alcohol vapor containment protocol from NIOSH, confirming that it can contain the harshest vapors & emissions. EQUASHIELD is in use by hundreds of hospitals and clinics around the world, and has been both cleared by the FDA under the ONB product code, and substantiated in FDA-cleared labeling as preventing microbial ingress for up to seven days. For more information: http://www.equashield.com

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Media Contact:
Finn Partners for Equashield
Nicole Grubner
nicole.grubner@finnpartners.com
@nicolegrubner
+1-929-222-8011