Equashield a leading provider of Closed System Transfer Devices (CSTDs) for hazardous drugs, announced today its 2017 growth results, including a 42 percent year-over-year increase in revenues. In addition, the company projects a higher growth rate in 2018, driven in part by the company's newly introduced hazardous drug compounding robot.

Equashield's customer base continues to expand, with 60 percent of new customers transitioning away from competing systems to Equashield's CSTD, while 40 percent of customers are introducing CSTDs into their hazardous drug handling practice for the first time.

"CSTDs have now become a standard of safety, with pharmacists no longer asking if they should use a CSTD. Instead, they are focused solely on when they will implement a closed system," said Marino Kriheli, Co-Founder of Equashield. "The USP 800 mandate, which requires the use of closed systems in the administration of hazardous drugs, and strongly recommends them in the compounding process, has driven official acceptance of CSTDs as a standard in both pharmacy and nursing, making them a must-have."

At the end of 2017, over 1,000 sites were using Equashield's closed system, including major hospital systems and NCI and NCCN facilities dedicated to cancer care. Equashield also expanded into new markets internationally in 2017, including Singapore, Hong Kong, S.A.R., China, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom.  

"We continue to see market share in the United States moving towards increased adoption of the Equashield system. Since 2015, Equashield has tripled its marketshare," said Ronak Kadakia, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Equashield LLC. "Since our product is clinically driven and based on scientifically proven safety and efficacy, large academic medical centers and clinically focused institutions have transitioned to utilizing mechanically closed systems, such as Equashield."

"ROW growth is strong, as evidenced by penetrating seven new markets internationally in 2017," said Adi Shor, VP Sales ROW. "As we enter 2018, we are already signing new exclusive distribution agreements with partners around the world, as CSTDs gain greater visibility and acceptance as standard practice for oncology treatment."

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.