Blue-Zone Technologies Ltd. Receives Drug Approval From Health Canada for Its Branded Generic DESFLURANE, USP.
BLUE-ZONE PREPARES FOR LOCAL PRODUCTION AND COMMERCIAL LAUNCH OF DESFLURANE, SAFEGUARDING ACCESS TO THIS CRITICAL DRUG FOR ALL CANADIANS AND PROVIDING SIGNIFICANT COSTS SAVINGS TO HOSPITALS.
April 29, 2020 11:33 AM Eastern Daylight Time
TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Blue-Zone Technologies Ltd. (“Blue-Zone”) announces receipt from Health Canada of a Drug Identification Number (DIN) for DESFLURANE, USP, an important drug used for general anesthesia. The DIN permits Blue-Zone to produce and commercially launch its branded generic drug. Desflurane makes up approximately one-third of the global inhalation anesthesia market, which, according to a recent Global Market Insights report, is projected to reach USD $1.9 billion by 2025.
This is the first known approval in the world for a drug produced using a distillation-based process. Blue-Zone created and then globally patented its unique processes for capturing and processing the costly and acutely environmentally harmful anesthetic gases used in surgeries. These gases were previously vented directly into the outside community.
Health Canada’s approval supports a new era in stability of domestic supply of anesthetic gases and will provide important long-term cost reductions for hospitals that use Blue-Zone’s technology. Blue-Zone was earlier granted Health Canada’s Drug Establishment License to manufacture, package, label and distribute anesthetics. Now, with the approved DIN, Blue-Zone can sell DESFLURANE, USP directly to hospitals.
“We are thrilled to receive this approval,” said President and Founder Dusanka Filipovic. “This approval has immediate positive implications – we can accelerate Blue-Zone’s quest to reduce hospital operating costs, and prevent the emissions of anesthetics into the environment, and establish critical domestic anesthetic production capacity for a complete line of anesthetics. This will have a positive impact for generations to come. Health Canada has approved our validated technology which clears the way for our drug approval in a number of large, targeted foreign jurisdictions,” she said.
Leading hospitals in Canada have worked with Blue-Zone on the premise of green environmental strategies, carbon footprint reduction, doing the right thing and protecting the community, but this approval shifts the business model to even greater value with ongoing significant cost savings and supply stability.
About BLUE-ZONE TECHNOLOGIES LTD.
Blue-Zone is a leading Canadian provider of globally innovative technologies, engineered products and services for sustainable capture, recovery and production of branded generic anesthetics. Blue-Zone is a founding partner of Canadian Coalition for Green Healthcare and member of the CSA Technical Sub Committee which supports and develops standards for anesthesia, medical gas supply and hospitals’ anesthetic gas systems.
With Blue-Zone’s novel and proprietary process for drug production, captured anesthetics are extracted, liquefied and used as raw material in the production of new, validated generic anesthetics. This ability to reprocess recovered halogenated anesthetics – unique to Blue-Zone and not provided by any other company, worldwide – offers additional economic and security of supply benefits for hospitals. Blue-Zone’s process also simultaneously protects our healthcare “heroes” from long term anesthetic gas exposure and protects our communities and environment from the very harmful impact of anesthetic gases.
Contacts
Kipton Lade, CEO +1 (905) 761-1224
klade@blue-zone.ca
Blue-Zone Technologies Ltd.
www.blue-zone.com
