GATWICK, England -- (BUSINESS WIRE) --

Systagenix announced today that more than 1,000 clinicians from over 400 sites across Europe, the Middle East and South Africa have now been trained in the four months since the launch of WOUNDCHEK^TM Protease Status, the world's first point of care test for Elevated Protease Activity (EPA) in chronic wounds.

The launch of WOUNDCHEK^TM Protease Status follows months of ever growing and vocal support from the clinical community. Six consensus documents on the importance of testing for EPA have been written in the last 18 months by a total of over 60 wound care experts from the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland.

Earlier in the year the NHS in the United Kingdom included testing for EPA in its guidelines as part of the assessment to determine care pathways for venous leg ulcers.

The introduction of WOUNDCHEK^TM Protease Status is a much-awaited adjunct to current clinical diagnosis and assessment as EPA cannot be detected by visual cues. Recent clinical trial data has shown that a chronic wound with EPA has a 90% probability of not healing without appropriate intervention to lower protease levels. 28% of the non-healing wounds in the clinical trials had EPA. With WOUNDCHEK^TM Protease Status clinicians will finally be able to identify these patients as soon as possible and prescribe the appropriate therapy, instead of going undetected and potentially not healing for months or years.

Paolo Di Vincenzo, Systagenix Vice President Global Marketing, said: "We are very proud to see so much support and recognition for WOUNDCHEK^TM Protease Status among wound care experts and practitioners from around the world. With EPA having such a huge impact on the chances of healing we are glad to offer a tool that for the first time can help clinicians identify and treat these patients accordingly as soon as possible. Thousands of clinicians are set to attend the upcoming European Wound Management Association conference in Vienna at the end of May. We look forward to joining them and to presenting them with the newest evidence, the most recent clinical experiences, and additional training opportunities."

WOUNDCHEK^TM Protease Status is not currently cleared by FDA for sale within the US market.

CONTACT:

Systagenix
Vicky Stoakes at VSPR
+44 (0)7747 534 519
vicky@vs-pr.com