Ondine Biomedical Inc. Announces Steriwave Study Shows 77% Drop in Antibiotic Use

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 21, 2024 / Ondine Biomedical Inc. (LON:OBI), the Canadian life sciences company pioneering light-activated antimicrobial treatments to prevent and treat healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), announces that a UK-based study demonstrated a significant reduction in antibiotic use following sinus surgeries where Steriwave® was used for pre-surgical nasal decolonization.

Professor Claire Hopkins, Professor of Rhinology at King's College London and Consultant ENT Surgeon at Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, has reported a retrospective study showing that using Steriwave in her endoscopic sinus surgery patients led to antibiotic use across all her patients dropping from 22% to less than 5% - a 77% reduction. Professor Hopkins has been using Steriwave routinely to nasally decolonise her endoscopic sinus surgery patients at London Bridge Hospital since 2021.

Professor Hopkins commented, "I was amazed that studies show that by treating the nose you can reduce spinal surgical site infections - so it seemed an ideal way to reduce the risk of post-operative infection after nasal surgery. I have seen a significant reduction in post-operative infections requiring antibiotics, which is good for the patients, reducing the risk of antibiotic-related side effects, and important to help prevent ever-increasing antibiotic resistance. It needs formal controlled studies to further evaluate the effectiveness but I am impressed with the difference that I have seen in my practice."

Interview with Professor Hopkins: Steriwave prevents sinonasal SSIs

Carolyn Cross CEO of Ondine commented, "In an era of rising drug resistance, antibiotic stewardship is of great importance. Sinus surgery is typically associated with high rates of routine post-operative antibiotic prescribing in order to reduce the risk of post-operative infection. Reducing antibiotic usage is important to curb rising antimicrobial resistance and preserve antibiotics' effectiveness when there is no other solution. We are pleased to be supporting Professor Hopkins' development and adoption of important new infection control procedures that enable a marked reduction in antibiotic use in sinus surgery patients."

Canadian hospitals have been using Ondine's light-activated antimicrobial to reduce post-surgical infections for over 10 years without evidence of resistance generation or patient safety issues. Results presented at the the prestigious SPIE Photonics West conference in San Francisco, California showed that treatment with Ondine's Steriwave® Nasal Photodisinfection System significantly reduces pathogens - viruses, bacteria and fungi - in the nose without producing long-term adverse effects on the nasal microbiome. This is an important finding to allay potential concerns as to a possible side-effect of Steriwave treatment, which has been used in over 150,000 patients with no serious adverse events reported. Steriwave was selected as a 2024 SPIE Prism Awards finalist in the 'Biomedical' category.

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About Ondine Biomedical Inc.

Ondine Biomedical Inc. is a Canadian life sciences company and leader innovating light-activated antimicrobial therapies (also known as 'photodisinfection'). Ondine has a pipeline of investigational products, based on its proprietary light activated technology, in various stages of development.

Ondine's light activated technology for nasal decolonisation has a CE mark in Europe and the UK 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. Products beyond nasal photodisinfection include therapies for a variety of medical indications such as chronic sinusitis, ventilator-associated pneumonia, burns, and many other indications.

About Steriwave®

Ondine's Steriwave® nasal photodisinfection system is a patented technology using a proprietary light-activated antimicrobial (photosensitizer) to destroy bacteria, viruses, and fungi colonizing the nose. The photodisinfection 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 laser 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%^[i]-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,^[ii] and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) guidelines, published in May 2023, recommend nasal decolonization for major surgical procedures.^[iii]

^[i] 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

^[ii] https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/integrated-health-services-(ihs)/ssi/fact-sheet-staphylococcus-web.pdf?sfvrsn=7e7266ed_2

^[iii] 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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SOURCE: Ondine Biomedical Inc