Yulex Corporation Signs Historic Agreement to Distribute First Guayule-Based Natural Latex Product Worldwide
May 17, 2005
CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Yulex Corporation of California announces a groundbreaking commercial distribution agreement to sell the only U.S. produced natural rubber latex material on the market that is safe for healthcare workers and patients who suffer from tropical latex allergy.
Yulex has signed an exclusive five-year distribution agreement with leading international natural rubber suppliers and distributors Centrotrade Rubber USA and Centrotrade Deutschland GmbH. Centrotrade's U.S. and European operations will distribute Yulex Natural Rubber Latex TM worldwide to medical device manufacturers of surgical gloves, condoms, catheters and other latex-based medical products that are seeking an alternative to lower performing synthetic latex materials. Yulex Natural Rubber Latex is derived from Guayule (why-YOU-lee), a desert plant indigenous to the U.S. Southwest and free of the proteins that cause tropical latex allergy, using technology developed originally by the Agriculture Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and licensed to Yulex for commercialization.
"We have been actively planning for this moment since the company was founded in 1997," says Jeff Martin, president and chief executive officer of Yulex Corporation. "This combination of technology, market acumen and channel access makes the Yulex - Centrotrade partnership an ideal vehicle for the rapid commercialization of this critical material for medical and consumer markets worldwide."
Eight to 12 percent of medical workers in the U.S. and Europe suffer allergic reactions to the proteins in tropical, or Hevea, latex. Although latex medical gloves and condoms are a primary focus for this new material, latex medical products are essential tools in healthcare for a wide range of procedures ranging from dental surgery to cardiac catheterization. Until now, no safe alternative source of natural rubber latex existed.
"This kind of an innovation only comes around every 30 years in the latex industry," says Horst Sakreida, managing director of Centrotrade Deutschland GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany. "There is an enormous need for this material in the medical industry and it is a great opportunity to be involved in a major market shift." "To Centrotrade, the agreement represents more than $150 million in product throughput over the course of the next five years," says Tom Marsh, president of Centrotrade USA. "We have been most interested in the development of this revolutionary latex material and welcome the opportunity to partner with Yulex."
