RCS - Ondine Biomedical - Entry into ICU market expands revenue potential

Ondine BiomedicalAnnouncement

04/04/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 2461J  Ondine Biomedical Inc.  04 April 2024

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

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