Cantel Medical Corp. announced specific areas of focus and associated actions to combat the COVID-19 virus. In these unprecedented times, the company is concentrating on enhanced production, product innovation and value-add COVID-19 education in support of first responders and other healthcare professionals.
"We are doing everything we can to contribute to the global effort focused on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic," said George Fotiades, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cantel. "Supporting those on the front lines, in addition to our global employee base, is job one, and we are working closely with distribution partners to ensure that our masks, PPE and other infection prevention solutions are going to those who are most in need. Infection prevention is the core of our company's mission, and we are doing everything possible to deliver key products and services to serve and protect healthcare professionals."
Cantel is working across divisions to bring critical products it manufactures and sells to various end markets to best serve healthcare providers on the front lines.
Cantel has focused on accelerating surgical earloop mask production by its HuFriedyGroup dental division, increasing manufacturing to 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the organization's two New York manufacturing sites and expanding manufacturing lines to increase production volume by over 50%. The enhanced hours and expanded production capacity have enabled the production of over 4.4 million masks per week to serve healthcare professionals. Recently, the organization has increased its manufacturing output on protective face shields by 50% and anticipates an increase of output by 100% in two weeks. These products are being deployed to medical and dental customers.
In addition to masks, HuFriedyGroup is focused on increasing sourcing through sub-suppliers to increase product availability on key products lines such as hand sanitizer, hand sanitizing wipes, protective eye wear, and surface disinfectants. These products span a variety of HuFriedyGroup brands including Crosstex, Hu-Friedy, and Palmero.
Cantel is also focused on innovating products that play a major role on the front lines of combatting COVID-19. On the dental side, AdvantaClear surface disinfectant is designed to clean and disinfect surfaces while effectively killing a broad spectrum of disease-causing microorganisms in one minute. Importantly, AdvantaClear surface disinfectant has been added to the EPA List N: Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2, and is classified as being effective against SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19.
Cantel's ACTRIL Cold Sterilant surface disinfectant, traditionally sold into the life sciences segment, is another example of unique product innovation. ACTRIL Cold Sterilant is a powerful disinfectant containing a proprietary mixture of 0.08% peracetic acid and 1.0% hydrogen peroxide. It is effective against a broad spectrum of organisms, including bacterial spores, fungal spores, bacteria, mycobacteria, yeast, molds, and viruses. Cantel is actively working with its medical division to offer this powerful disinfectant to hospital customers to help in the fight against infections.
