Aseptika recently announced that it has been granted a United States patent protecting the company’s proprietary respiratory infection test — the Sputum test — which is designed to significantly benefit those with chronic and debilitating pulmonary conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The test was designed to be utilized by clinicians in hospitals and by patients themselves at home. This represents new opportunities for Aseptika to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies in the United States to sign them on as distributors of the test.
The patent US 8980566B2 was awarded to the company for the test and includes other worldwide applications that are expected to be granted in the near future under the International Patent Treaty. This technology determines the amount of activity of the bacteria in the lungs of patients that are vulnerable because of long-term conditions like Cystic Fibrosis, COPD and Asthma.
The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces two well-studied bio-markers; the levels of a marker for a bacterial iron scavenging process and levels of a secreted bacterial protein are both assessed and measured over time. Alterations in these concentrations allow the assessment of bacterial activity, antibiotic efficacy, and the prediction and monitoring of bacterial infection exacerbations.
[adrotate group=”3″]
This respiratory infection test based on biomarkers is currently being used in the SBRI Healthcare-funded SENSOR clinical trial and in collaboration with Portsmouth Hospitals and NHS Trust on COPD and severe asthma patients who volunteered. The research team expects to have a home-use test available within a year.
Read More Recent News About COPD
In other COPD-related news, Pharmaxis recently presented encouraging interim results regarding a single ascending dose stage phase I clinical trial that is evaluating its experimental therapy PXS4728A. The pharmaceutical company expects to offer the Semicarbazide-Sensitive Amine Oxidase/Vascular Adhesion Protein-1 (SSAO/VAP-1) inhibitor as treatment for lung conditions such as COPD, among other indications.