A COMPANY that claims to have developed the world’s first soluble wound dressings has agreed a major contract to supply a medical company in Yemen.

McCormack Innovation, working alongside strategic partners including the University of Dundee in developing dressings that will dissolve in seconds when immersed in water, has signed a significant supply agreement for the war-torn country.

A Saudi-led coalition is locked in battle with the Houthi movement in the conflict which it is said has brought the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The agreement involving the Fife company will see hundreds of thousands of units of soluble medical organisational tape supplied to Yemen, with one focus of the product being treating malnourished children by helping attach feeding tubes.

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McCormack Innovation said its soluble medical tape can easily be removed from sensitive or damaged skin without touching the patient or the dressing and thereby greatly reducing patient trauma.

The company says its product’s uniqueness is in its ability to dissolve in water. The tape can be submersed in water for a short period of time where it will detach itself from the skin without any need for abrasion. It can also be removed in the shower or with a fine spray of water and leaves no residue.

Brian McCormack, managing director, McCormack Innovation said: “Having received interest from a leading medical company based in Sana, Yemen for our medical dressings to be delivered to this war-torn country, we were humbled to be able to help in this humanitarian crisis and provided the initial order of 1100 units free of charge.”

This announcement follows McCormack Innovation’s recent news of its Fine to Flush certification for its soluble medical wet wipes, also said to be ground-breaking.

McCormack Innovation is bidding to become a “global game-changer” and market disruptor with its suite of novel soluble materials for the medical and personal care markets.

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The company, founded by Mr McCormack and Garry Crighton, says it has created “revolutionary” technology for the future use of its disposable wipes as well as in point-of-care medical testing kits and consumables.

It has a range that includes a stool collector for assisting in the early detection of bowel cancer as well as the dissolvable wound dressings among products that were developed in partnership with a number of Scottish universities.

The company's soluble bandages have been praised by experts and it is now in advanced discussions with one of the world's largest healthcare companies on supply in the wider to market.

The firm's medical-grade soluble wet wipes, licensed for European production with Guardpack in Chelmsford, which produces 100 million wipes a year, could help ease environmental contamination in what is also claimed to be a world-first.

The company is involved in a number of strands of development.

Mr McCormack, a retired miner, has devised a series of inventions around dissolving materials and has also linked up with scientists at Strathclyde University to develop ways of tackling waste in space.

The 62-year-old has entered a five-year agreement to explore methods of broaching the growing problem of orbital junk.