Non-regulatory
announcement
ONDINE BIOMEDICAL
INC.
("Ondine
Biomedical", "Ondine", or the "Company")
Entry into ICU market expands
revenue potential
Following interest from
Canadian Hospitals, Ondine prepares to enter the Intensive Care
Unit (ICU) market
· Treatment
of patients in ICUs would significantly expand Ondine's potential
market opportunity.
· Hundreds
of thousands of patients are admitted to the ICU every year in
Canada alone, with an average stay of over four days.[1]
· One in
every eight patients in Canadian ICUs develops
an infection not related to their presenting medical
illness.[2]
· Daily
nasal decolonisation with Ondine's new light-activated
antimicrobial treatment, Steriwave®, which does not generate
antimicrobial resistance (AMR), could help prevent these
life-threatening infections.
· ICUs in
Canada, the UK and the EU are being targeted under existing
regulatory approvals.
Ondine Biomedical Inc. (LON: OBI), the Canadian life
sciences company pioneering light-activated antimicrobial
treatments, confirms that interest from hospitals in Canada has
accelerated its opportunity to address the Intensive Care Unit
(ICU) market. Already used in hospitals across Canada to reduce
HAIs (healthcare-associated infections) in patients undergoing
surgery, this move into the routine treatment of highly compromised
patients in ICUs has the potential to significantly expand
Steriwave® usage in hospitals.
The opportunity for hospital cost savings by using
Steriwave is very substantial. One study found that patients who
develop an HAI in ICU typically spend 30 days in the hospital
compared to around three days for non-HAI
patients.[3] The average daily
cost for an ICU bed in Canada is $3,592, three times higher than a
standard ward bed. Longer ICU stays also lead to ongoing higher
overall health costs.[4] Similar to its
outcomes for pre-operative nasal decolonisation of surgical
patients, Ondine anticipates substantial cost savings for the
hospital as well as a significant reduction in mortality rates.
A large study involving nearly 75,000 patients,
amounting to more than 280,000 patient days in 74 adult ICUs, was
carried out in 2012 by HCA Healthcare, the US's largest hospital
group, and demonstrated the effectiveness of daily nasal
decolonisation for patients in ICUs. The study found that universal
nasal decolonisation using the antibiotic mupirocin reduced
all-cause bloodstream infections by 44%.[5] However,
hospitals are becoming increasingly reluctant to routinely treat
patients with mupirocin, the most commonly used standard of care,
because of rising resistance rates of up to 80%, leaving few
approved alternatives to this major antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
problem.[6]
Carolyn Cross, CEO of Ondine Biomedical Inc.,
commented, "We have long known that the ICU is an epicenter of
hospital infection due to the vulnerable population of critically
ill patients and the high use of invasive procedures including
intubation, catheters and ports. We believe that Steriwave can
offer a far more effective solution to ICU infections than nasal
antibiotics, and we are looking forward to capitalising on this
large market segment. Ondine will be able to reach
ICUs using its existing sales and marketing infrastructure, making
this an obvious area for us to expand into."
Ondine has regulatory approvals in Canada, Mexico,
the UK, and Europe that cover using Steriwave in the ICU.
Steriwave works as a broad-spectrum antimicrobial
that uses a photosensitizer solution and associated red activating
light to destroy pathogens that colonise the nose and can spread to
cause harmful infections. Unlike traditional antibiotics, Steriwave
is immediately effective with a single five-minute treatment and
does not trigger antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Steriwave has now
been used in over 150,000 patient treatments, including at major
hospitals across Canada and more recently in early-adopting NHS
hospitals.
**ENDS**
Enquiries:
Ondine Biomedical
Inc.
|
|
Carolyn Cross, CEO
|
+001 (604) 665 0555
|
|
|
Singer Capital Markets (Nominated Adviser and Joint
Broker)
|
|
Aubrey Powell, Sam
Butcher
|
+44 (0)20 7496 3000
|
|
|
RBC
Capital Markets (Joint Broker)
|
|
Rupert Walford, Kathryn
Deegan
|
+44 (0)20 7653 4000
|
|
|
Vane Percy & Roberts (Media Contact)
|
|
Simon Vane Percy, Amanda
Bernard
|
+44 (0)77 1000 5910
|
About Ondine
Biomedical Inc.
Ondine Biomedical Inc. is a Canadian life science
company and a world leader in the development and clinical use of
light-activated antimicrobial therapies (also known as
'photodisinfection'). Based on its proprietary light-activated
technology, Ondine has a pipeline of investigational products in
various stages of development.
Ondine's nasal decolonisation light-activated
technology has a CE mark in Europe and the UK-CA mark, and is
approved in Canada and several other countries under the name
Steriwave®. In the US, it has been granted Qualified Infectious
Disease Product designation and Fast Track status by the FDA and is
currently undergoing clinical trials for regulatory approval.
Light-activated antimicrobial products in development include
therapies for a variety of medical indications such as chronic
sinusitis, ventilator-associated pneumonia, burns, and other
indications.
About
Steriwave®
Ondine's Steriwave is a patented technology using a
proprietary light-activated antimicrobial (photosensitizer) to
destroy bacteria, viruses, and fungi colonizing the nose - a major
reservoir of pathogens. The treatment is carried out by a trained
healthcare professional and is an easy-to-use, painless, two-step
process. The photosensitizer is applied to each nostril using
a nasal swab, followed by illumination of the area with a specific
wavelength of red light for less than five minutes. The light
activates the photosensitizer, causing an oxidative burst that is
lethal to all types of pathogens without causing long-term adverse
effects on the nasal microbiome. A key benefit of this approach,
unlike with antibiotics which have resistance rates reported as
high as 81%[7], is that pathogens do not
develop resistance to the therapy.
Nasal decolonization is recommended in the 2016 WHO
Global guidelines for the prevention of surgical site
infections,[8] and the Society for Healthcare
Epidemiology of America (SHEA) guidelines, published in May 2023,
recommend nasal decolonisation for major surgical
procedures.[9]
[1] Wong DT, Gomez M, McGuire
GP, Kavanagh B. Utilization of intensive care unit days in a
Canadian medical-surgical intensive care unit. Crit Care Med. 1999
Jul;27(7):1319-24. doi: 10.1097/00003246-199907000-00020. PMID:
10446826.
[2] Blot S, Ruppé E, Harbarth
S, Asehnoune K, Poulakou G, Luyt CE, Rello J, Klompas M, Depuydt P,
Eckmann C, Martin-Loeches I, Povoa P, Bouadma L, Timsit JF, Zahar
JR. Healthcare-associated infections in adult intensive care unit
patients: Changes in epidemiology, diagnosis, prevention and
contributions of new technologies. Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2022
Jun;70:103227. doi: 10.1016/j.iccn.2022.103227. Epub 2022 Mar 3.
PMID: 35249794; PMCID: PMC8892223.
[3] S.
Stewart, C. Robertson, J. Pan, S. Kennedy, L. Haahr, S. Manoukian,
H. Mason, K. Kavanagh, N. Graves, S.J. Dancer, B. Cook, J.
Reilly. Impact of healthcare-associated
infection on length of stay. Journal
of Hospital Infection. Volume 114,
2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.02.026.
doi:10.1017/ice.2023.67
[4] Dziegielewski C, Talarico
R, Imsirovic H, Qureshi D, Choudhri Y, Tanuseputro P, Thompson LH,
Kyeremanteng K. Characteristics and resource utilization of
high-cost users in the intensive care unit: a population-based
cohort study. BMC Health Serv Res. 2021 Dec 6;21(1):1312. doi:
10.1186/s12913-021-07318-y. PMID: 34872546; PMCID: PMC8647444.
[5]
https://investor.hcahealthcare.com/news/news-details/2012/Study-at-HCA-Hospitals-Shows-Universal-Decolonization-of-ICU-Patients-Reduces-Bloodstream-Infections-by-44-Percent/default.aspx
[6] Poovelikunnel T, Gethin
G, Humphreys H. Mupirocin resistance: clinical implications and
potential alternatives for the eradication of MRSA. J Antimicrob
Chemother. 2015;70(10):2681-2692. doi:10.1093/jac/dkv169
[7] Poovelikunnel T, Gethin G, Humphreys H. Mupirocin resistance:
clinical implications and potential alternatives for the
eradication of MRSA. J Antimicrob Chemother.
2015;70(10):2681-2692. doi:10.1093/jac/dkv169
[8] https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/integrated-health-services-(ihs)/ssi/fact-sheet-staphylococcus-web.pdf?sfvrsn=7e7266ed_2
[9] Calderwood MS, Anderson DJ, Bratzler DW, et al. Strategies to
prevent surgical site infections in acute-care hospitals: 2022
Update. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2023;44(5):695-720.
doi:10.1017/ice.2023.67