Ferris Mfg. Corp.

Developing innovative products to aid the wound healing process

Ferris Mfg. Corp. is a privately-owned company that has been dedicated to developing innovative products to aid the wound healing process since 1977.

The company’s major discovery in 1988 of a multifunctional polymeric membrane dressing was an important advance and has now become recognised world-wide as “The pink dressing”. These dressings are designed to facilitate healing, relieve pain and reduce inflammation in a unique way. They include a hydrophilic polyurethane matrix with a mild, tissue-friendly wound cleanser, a soothing moisturizer, a superabsorbent, and a semi-permeable film backing. This patented formulation of ingredients works synergistically to provide unrivalled benefits for both clinicians and patients in terms of debriding and cleansing the wound bed, while also managing exudate.

Ferris believes that while wound healing is the objective, it’s vital that patient pain is minimised, so “The pink dressing” is designed to provide relief by modulating the inflammatory response, providing a completely non-adherent interface to the wound bed and reducing the need for wound bed cleansing at re-dressing.

The company’s founder, Robert Sessions, was responsible for numerous inventions as well as the “Pink dressing” – for example, one of the first implantable cardiac pacemakers, disposable electrocardiogram electrodes, a disposable bone marrow aspiration needle and a suture-less cannula for open heart surgery.

His nephew, Dr Roger Sessions, now heads the company and carries on the Ferris tradition of researching and introducing products that are not only effective, but also keep the patient and pain minimisation in mind. As he says “In no other field is this more important than in EB, where the need for wound dressing is constant. Minimising pain will always be a major objective in our research”.