Photodisinfection kills all types of pathogens, including viruses, bacteria and fungi without using antibiotics

Mexico’s Health Authority (COFEPRIS) has approved the sale and use of Ondine Biomedical’s Steriwave™ photodisinfection technology, which eliminates nasal pathogens that can cause healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).   

The large and growing Mexican healthcare market is of strategic interest to Ondine. Mexico’s healthcare system provides coverage to its 129 million citizens through a combination of public and private entities. The private hospitals and medical facilities serve a large domestic market, together with up to 1 million foreign medical tourists a year—a market estimated to be worth US$6.75 billion in 2021.[i]

Carolyn Cross, CEO of Ondine Biomedical, said:

“With significant global backlogs and high costs of various types of medical procedures, medical tourism is likely to be on the rise over the coming years, as foreign medical tourists seek state of the art medical services at affordable prices. The Mexican healthcare market is of strategic interest to our company and is of personal interest to me. I am thrilled to bring our technology to this important market and to help Mexican healthcare professionals better protect patients from the growing antimicrobial resistance threat.

“The great advantage of our photodisinfection therapy is that it not only spares patients the trauma of an infection, but it can also reduce patient waiting lists by reducing hospital readmissions rates and decreasing the average length of stay in hospital.”

Ondine is presently focused on commercialising its Steriwave™ nasal photodisinfection, which eliminates infection-causing bacteria, viruses, and fungi from patients’ noses in minutes to prevent HAIs. Disinfection of the nose is recommended prior to surgery as pathogens in a patient’s nasal cavities are a major cause of surgical site infections (SSIs).[ii] A patient with a surgical site infection will, on average, spend five days more in hospital, significantly increasing the cost and lengthening a patient’s recovery. At Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), one of Canada’s largest tertiary care hospitals, pre-surgical use of Steriwave has resulted in a 78% reduction in SSIs among spine surgery patients.[iii]

A study published in JAMA showed that SSIs are the leading cause of readmissions to hospital following surgery and are a significant cause of post-surgical morbidity and mortality, with a 2- to 11-fold increase in mortality risk.[iv] Recent research at VGH found the all-cause crude mortality rate was cut by 59% (13.2 vs. 32.2 deaths/1000 patients, P<0.001) among patients who received nasal photodisinfection before surgery when compared to those who did not.[v] Post-surgical infection treatment can be challenging, especially with rising rates of antimicrobial resistance, but Steriwave provides a comprehensive solution to this problem that can be easily used for all types of surgeries.

[i] https://www.statista.com/statistics/819266/mexico-market-value-medical-tourism/

[ii] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877056813001461

[iii] Daniel Banaszek, Tom Inglis, Tamir Ailon, Raphaële Charest-Morin, Nicolas Dea, Charles G. Fisher, Brian K. Kwon, Scott J. Paquette, John Street. The efficacy and cost-effectiveness of photodynamic therapy in prevention of surgical site infection,The Spine Journal, Volume 19, Issue 9, Supplement, 2019, Page S138, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spinee.2019.05.299.

[iv] Merkow RP, Ju MH, Chung JW, Hall BL, Cohen ME, Williams MV, Tsai TC, Ko CY, Bilimoria KY. Underlying reasons associated with hospital readmission following surgery in the United States. JAMA. 2015 Feb 3;313(5):483-95. doi: 10.1001/jama.2014.18614.

[v] https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/OBI/steriwave-tm-cuts-ssi-risk-by-47-at-major-hospital/15679064