Medical device company, NxStage Medical Inc. (NXTM), recently launched Streamline Express, a gamma sterilized dialyzer for the in-center hemodialysis market.

The product has been designed to substantially bring down the labor and time associated with setting up machines. Attached with a blood tubing set, the dialyzer should also help reduce touch point contamination sites.

The Streamline Express device allows even distribution of fluids and solutes, hence making it more effective in the course of treatments.

Further, the new dialyzer, a combination of the NxStage dialyzer and Medisystems’ Streamline, has been designed to avoid the unwanted risk of clotting.

Streamline Express allows high clearances owing to low protein adsorption. Notably, the device is available for the Fresenius 2008 and B. Braun hemodialysis machines.

Recently, a study supervised by the Chronic Disease Research Group (:CDRG) demonstrated that frequent home hemodialysis (:HHD) is a better alternative to peritoneal dialysis (PD.TO). HDD patients, as per the study, have a 16% lower risk of death, 8% lesser risk of hospitalization, and 38% lower risk of therapy attrition than PD patients.

The single use Streamline Express dialyzer is definitely an improvement over the company’s previous dialyzer which was used in the System One machines. The previous dialyzer required a separate tubing set (cartridge).

However Nxstage is not the only player in the Hemodialysis market. Baxter International Inc. (BAX), Rockwell Medical, Inc. (RMTI) and Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGAA (FMS) provide a strong competition when it comes to dialyzers.

Baxter’s EXELTRA Dialyzer provides improved clearance values which the Streamline Express promise to deliver. The company’s DICEA dialyzers provides significant treatment flexibility. Polysulfone dialyzer by Fresenius Medical has also been there in the market for quite some time. Hence it remains to be seen if the new offering from Nxstage can actually beat all its competitors and achieve a high adoption rate.

Currently, NxStage Medical carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

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