McGaw to Jointly Sell IV Solution to Boost Revenue : Medicine: Irvine-based company will join Du Pont Merck in marketing Hespan, a chemical to lower the risk of surgical infection sometimes associated with tainted blood or blood-based plasma.

McGaw Inc. has struck a deal with Du Pont Merck to jointly market a chemical solution to increase plasma volume during surgery while reducing the risk of infection from contaminated blood products.

In a bonus for McGaw, Du Pont Merck has also agreed to market the solution in an environmentally safe intravenous bag developed by McGaw, company officials said Friday.

The pact to jointly promote Hespan, a solution developed by Du Pont Merck and manufactured by McGaw, is a departure from the two firms’ past agreement, in which Du Pont Merck remained the sole distributor of the product.

The new deal to share distribution rights will potentially double Hespan’s sales, thus boosting McGaw’s revenue.

Officials of both companies have agreed to keep detailed sales predictions confidential.

While Du Pont Merck has long concentrated on selling the 10-year-old product to private practice physicians, McGaw’s contacts in the hospital pharmacy market will create “significant” growth for both companies, McGaw spokesman Larry Watts said.

Hespan, usually less expensive and more readily available than whole blood or blood-based plasma, also has strong sales potential in the hospital pharmacy sector, because its use during surgery cuts down the chances for infection.

An increasing number of patients worry that they will be given blood or blood-based plasma tainted with the HIV virus or other contagions, Watts said.

“It’s going to be a terrific combination,” Watts said.

Du Pont Merck, with 1991 revenue of $795 million, will market Hespan in McGaw’s patented Excel IV bag, a nontoxic, environmentally safe solution container. In the past, the Wilmington, Del., pharmaceutical giant has sold the chemical in bags provided by a third-party supplier.

McGaw says its Excel bag is superior to traditional IV bags, which are made of PVCs and contain the cancer-causing chemical diethylhexyl phthalate, which can leach onto the IV solution and make its way to the bloodstream.

The pact is the latest effort by McGaw to acquire marketing agreements for the Excel bag.

Last month, the firm sold licensing rights to Kabi Pharmacia AB of Stockholm to manufacture the bag and sell it in Europe.

Watts said McGaw, which posted $273 million in sales for 1991, has been seeking deals with other companies to market their drugs with the Excel bag as a way to boost McGaw’s bottom line.

“We think there’s an enormous potential for that,” Watts said. “We are looking for ways to work with drug manufacturers to find a superior form of administration of drugs that already exist.”