Testimonials

Since Tri-Solfen^® was commercially launched, over 150 million lambs have been treated and over 80% of Australian wool growers are now using Tri-Solfen for their sheep. Here’s what some of them have to say…

‘We have used pain relief for two years now and seen real production gains. We are concerned for the welfare of our animals and will continue to use pain relief to ensure they get the best care.’

Clinton Wise– Wililoo Merino Stud, Woodanilling, W.A.

'It easy to see the difference pain relief makes. Before, lambs would walk away hunched up, even taking a couple of hours to walk back to the paddock. Now they run straight back to Mum and start suckling,” says Rod. “My wool is now sold under the Better Choices brand. I see this as a definite advantage. I think it will be an advantage in the long run, to both me and the industry as a whole.'

Rod Miller– Glenpaen Merino Stud, Horsham, Vic

'After being treated with pain relief my lambs were more content and less stressed. As farmers we are sincere in looking after the welfare of our animals and using pain relief demonstrates this.'

Richard Coole– Frankland, W.A.

'We have been using pain relief for the past three years. We’re impressed by reduced bleeding in the mulesing wound immediately after application. Lambs run straight back to find the ewe, which has dramatically reduced our mortality rates. Flock management, post lamb marking is easier due to the effect of pain relief and the scab healing faster.'

Ryan & Malcom O’Dea– Peepingee Merino Stud, Narrogin, W.A.

'Using pain relief eases the stress and allows lambs to mother up and move back to the paddock easier with faster weight gains.'

Kent Lummis– Waverley Downs, Gilgandra, NSW

Country	Species	Patent
Australia	Sheep	Granted
Australia	Horses, Dogs, Lab animals	Granted
Australia	Cattle	Granted
Australia	Humans	Granted
New Zealand	Sheep, Cattle	Granted
New Zealand	Horses, Dogs, Lab animals	Granted
EU	Humans	Granted
EU	Pig, Sheep, Cattle	Granted
USA	Dogs, Horses, Lab animals	Granted
USA	Humans	Granted
USA	Pig, Sheep, Cattle	Granted
Canada	Horses, Dogs, Lab animals	Granted
Canada	Cattle, Pig	Granted
Canada	Humans	Granted

Advisory Board

Ian Page

Non-Executive Director

Ian is Chief Executive Officer of Dechra Pharmaceuticals, which has a 33% shareholder in Medical Ethics. He joined National Veterinary Services, Dechra’s former services business in 1989 and joined the Board of Dechra in 1997. In October 2010, Ian was appointed as Non-Executive Chairman of Sanford DeLand Asset Management.

Dr Chris Roberts

Human Wound and Regulatory Advisor

Chris has over 20 years’ line management experience of heading clinical research teams. He was previously global head of Smith & Nephew clinical support and market development, where he managed global clinical Phase II and III programmes in the management of venous and pressure ulcers.

Lieutenant Colonel Professor Steven Jeffery

Medical Specialist Advisor

Steve has over 15 years’ experience in military plastic surgery. In 2011 he was awarded the Military Civilian Partnership Award for ‘Regular of the Year’, as well as receiving the Wounds UK ‘Key Contribution’ award and the Smith and Nephew ‘Customer Pioneer of the Year’ award. He has also been awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England ad eundum. He is an expert adviser to NICE Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme. Steve co-founded the Woundcare 4 Heroes charity, which is already making a big difference to the wound care of both serving and veteran personnel.

Dr Matthew Bayfield

Medical Specialist Scientific Director

Dr Matthew Bayfield, Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Strathfield Private Hospital and VMO Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

Professor Peter Windsor

Veterinarian Research Advisor

Peter is a registered specialist veterinary surgeon in New South Wales and an emeritus Professor at Sydney University. He holds a BVSc (Hons), PhD, DVSc and diploma from the European College of Small Ruminant Health Management.

Dr Julian Braidwood

Global Regulatory Affairs Advisor

Julian has held leadership roles and managed international clinical projects with Grampian. He was previously Regulatory Affairs Manager at Novartis Animal Health. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Triveritas, where he is responsible for a team of 40 animal health specialists across the EU and the US.

Tri–Solfen^®

Tri-Solfen^® is a local anaesthetic and antiseptic gel spray that adheres well to wounds and acts as a barrier to environmental stimuli, promotes haemostasis and improves wound healing. Tri-Solfen^® contains two proven topical local anaesthetics; fast-acting Lignocaine for immediate pain relief and long-acting bupivacaine for prolonged post-operative pain relief. Adrenaline is included for its ability to reduce the shock and stress of blood loss, whilst prolonging the anaesthetic action. Tri-Solfen^® also contains Cetrimide; an antiseptic widely used to cleanse skin and wounds and provides protection from bacterial contamination.

Pain Relief From Man To Lamb

March 15, 2007

STOCK AND LAND March 15, 2007

By MARIUS CUMINGTHE WOMAN behind the mulesing pain relief product TriSolfen is now tackling pain relief in other sheep and cattle operations. ”There have been tremendous developments in the area of pain relief for humans and it can be adapted to the farm in a practical and economic way,” Dr Meredith Sheil said. Having developed the first pain relief product for the sheep industry she now hopes others will help pick up the mantle. ” Most people don’t hold the extreme views of the animal rights groups, still, they don’t like to see animals in pain,” she said. ” lf we want to keep up with consumer standards of humane animal care, we have to find simple affordable ways of treating pain in our animals.”While she said pain relief alone was not the long-term answer to mulesing, it had been widely adopted and was the best option available until a more effective cure could be found.”l wish we didn’t have to perform heart surgery on children or drill teeth but until something better comes along we have to have these procedures. Pain relief is always just a stepping stone, sometimes a short one, sometimes a long one. “ The paediatrician, doctor and superfine wool grower at llford, near Bathurst in NSW used her experience managing painful wounds in children, to develop the pain-relief spray for mulesing. ”l used to soak children’s wounds with topical anaesthetic to numb them before stitching them up,” she said. For lambs she put the same local anaesthetic agents into a gel that sticks to the wound so that the agents continue to act and deliver pain relief over a number of hours.

From testing results, Dr Sheil believes Tri-Solfen offers more than eight hours pain alleviation and its success stems from its ability to stop an entire chain reaction of responses to pain.
“After you first receive a cut a number of reactions occur from the initial activity of the nerve endings being severed to inflammation and swelling, which makes the pain escalate.
“Stopping the first response seems to prevent a large amount of the pain escalation,”
she said. So encouraging have been the results, Australian Wool Innovation chairman Ian
Mclachlan himself has been impressed. “l have used it and there is no doubt it is good, but it is not a solution to the mulesing problem,” he said. But mulesing is just one painful operation, it represents the start of a new era in animal management. Dr Sheil believes that there are many other procedures in animals that cause a lot of pain that could be better managed.

“Castration is also highly painful, particularly with elastic rings. They inflict an enormous
amount of acute pain. Imagine putting a rubber band tightly around the tip of your finger and leaving it there until your finger falls off.”
And if you think she is developing new products for commercial gain, think again. “lt cost a lot of money to develop Tri-Solfen. If I knew what the costs were going to be, I’m not sure that I would have gone ahead. Luckily, I was very naive.” Now that it has been widely adopted, it has helped the developers recover costs and they are pushing on to look at ways of performing mulesing and other husbandry procedures painlessly.

Dr Sheil is not concerned by the industry commitment to phase out surgical mulesing by 2010. ”We cannot stop mulesing until we have an effective alternative, just like we cannot stop open heart surgery until we have an effective alternative, it’s as simple as that.” From her observations she believes that castration with a rubber ring inflicts far more pain than mulesing and it is for this reason that she sees a problem with the mulesing clips currently being developed by AWI. ”The injectable appears to be the great white hope but knowing about the very long and involved process of registering chemicals and overcoming occupational health and safety concerns, residue issues and so on I can’t see how AWI can possibly have a commercial product ready, and everyone trained to use it by 2010,” she said. ”Hopefully the industry will find a real solution. ln the meantime. we have Tri-Solfen and we are looking at additional pain relief options. ”That makes our sheep the most humanely treated farm animals in the world. We should be proud of that.”

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