Vancouver, Canada, Sept. 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ondine announces that Dr. Nicolas Loebel will address the 5th International Conference on Prevention & Infection Control (ICPIC) held in Geneva, Switzerland on September 10-13th, 2019. ICPIC brings together an average of 1200 participants from 100+ countries to exchange best practices, highlight current research in the field and share innovations in infection control.
Dr. Loebel will be presenting the extended infection prevention results achieved since 2013, when the Vancouver Coastal Health team received the ICPIC Global Innovation Award of Excellence. The VCH team was recognized by ICPIC for the demonstrated significant patient safety outcomes and cost savings achieved with Ondine’s non-antibiotic, broad spectrum, antimicrobial approach that does not generate resistance. More than 45,000 pre-surgical patients have now been treated, preventing significant numbers of surgical site infections (SSI) without adverse events.
Since winning the prestigious ICPIC award, Ondine’s nasal Photodisinfection protocol has garnered additional awards and recognition for the resulting reductions in patient morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. Recently presented data from the Vancouver Coastal Health spine group demonstrated that the impact on post spine surgery infections at Vancouver General Hospital over a period of eight years was highly significant. The results showed a 78% reduction in surgical site infection rate (p<0.01) and found one infection was prevented for every eighteen patients treated. Further, $4.24 million was saved annually and no adverse events were reported.
The early acknowledgement by ICPIC of Vancouver Coastal Health's innovative deployment of Photodisinfection for universal nasal decolonization was instrumental in the development, acceptance and funding of this important new non-antibiotic approach to infection control. The technology has since been awarded Fast Track and Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) designations by the FDA.
In addition to Dr. Loebel’s presentation on nasal Photodisinfection, the latest in vitro results of Ondine’s Candida auris program will be presented. These results demonstrate that Ondine’s photodisinfection technology is capable of eradicating C. auris – a rapidly emerging nosocomial threat - in less than 5 minutes using standard clinical dosing parameters. C. auris has been described by the CDC as a “serious global health threat” because it can cause invasive infections associated with high mortality rates, is often resistant to multiple classes of antifungal drugs, and is difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods.
About Photodisinfection
Ondine’s Photodisinfection is a powerful new alternative in the fight against drug-resistant infections. This patented, light-activated antimicrobial kills drug-resistant bacteria, viruses, and fungi, including those in biofilms, in minutes. Because Photodisinfection is effective against such a broad spectrum of pathogens, expensive and time-consuming pathogen identification is not required. Photodisinfection kills microbes through oxidative disruption of the microbial cell membrane with no known adverse effects to human epithelial tissue or mucosa. Microbes are unable to resist or adapt to this treatment.
About Ondine Biomedical Inc.
Ondine Biomedical Inc. is dedicated to the development of treatment and prevention therapies for a broad-spectrum of multidrug-resistant bacterial, viral and fungal infections. Ondine's antimicrobial program utilizes Photodisinfection to provide rapid antimicrobial efficacy without elevating risk of resistance. In addition to Ondine’s universal nasal Photodisinfection therapy, other applications of the Photodisinfection platform are under development, including treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis, treatment of burns and wounds, and disinfection of endotracheal tubes to reduce the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia.