Vancouver, BC, May 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ondine Biomedical Inc. announces that it has secured funding from investors including TELUS Ventures to bring the benefits of its Photodisinfection technology to the COVID-19 battle. The company is focusing its efforts to help protect healthcare professionals, essential workers, and at-risk carriers of SARS-CoV-2 from development of COVID-19 symptoms, as well as life-threatening secondary infections resulting from other nasal pathogens.
Ondine is the global leader in developing Photodisinfection based medical devices with over a decade of experience eliminating harmful nasal pathogens to reduce surgical site infections.
People can asymptomatically carry the novel coronavirus, representing a risk of self-infection and a primary source of transmission to others. Researchers have confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 is present in the upper airway for up to 12 days prior to more widespread pulmonary dissemination. Recent studies have demonstrated that Photodisinfection is effective against the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus. Ondine is the only company to commercially deploy Photodisinfection for nasal decolonization; its broad-spectrum antimicrobial technology has been used in Canadian hospitals for the past decade to significantly reduce healthcare-associated infections.
The company’s Steriwave™ Nasal Decolonization (ND) is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial treatment that can eliminate nasal pathogens, such as the novel coronavirus, to reduce the potential for transmission and infection. Ondine is testing Steriwave ND’s ability to eradicate SARS-CoV-2 in the nose and nasopharynx in order to provide an extra layer of protection for healthcare professionals, first responders, essential workers, and at-risk individuals.
“Our mission is to develop new technologies that can help society counter the threats from emerging new pathogens as well as antimicrobial resistance,” said Carolyn Cross, the founder and CEO of Ondine. “We believe that nasal Photodisinfection, like frequent handwashing, is an important part of first-line defense to protect people against infection and to help reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. This global pandemic underscores the importance of transmission control and bringing topical antiviral and antibacterial technologies, like Steriwave ND, to communities across Canada and around the world.”
About Photodisinfection
Ondine’s Photodisinfection is a powerful new alternative in the fight against drug-resistant topical 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.
About Steriwave™ Nasal Decolonization
Ondine’s Steriwave ND is an antimicrobial treatment that can eliminate nasal bacteria, viruses, and fungi in symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers to reduce the potential for transmission and infection. Carriers of bacteria, viruses and fungi in their noses are at greater risk of self-infection and represent a vector of transmission inside hospitals and healthcare workers.
The Vancouver Coastal Health infection control team led by Drs. Elizabeth Bryce, Titus Wong and Diane Roscoe, received the 2013 global infection control Innovation Excellence Award at the International Conference for Prevention and Infection Control (ICPIC) in Geneva for their pioneering results from universal pre-surgical nasal Photodisinfection protocols which significantly reduced surgical site infections.
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.
Attachment