Ondine Biomedical Inc. Announces 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.

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 4, 2024 / ("Ondine Biomedical", "Ondine", or the "Company") 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.

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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]