Ondine Biomedical Inc. (LON:OBI), Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, and Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber are partnering with the York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC) to evaluate the use of Ondine’s light-activated antimicrobial, Steriwave®, to reduce the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs).

SSIs are one of the most common healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and affect one in every 20 patients who undergo a surgical procedure in the NHS.^[i] SSIs can cost up to £100,000 per patient,^[ii] and the overall cost of HAIs to NHS England is over £2 billion a year.^[iii] These costs are expected to rise as growing rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) make the current standard of care – the antibiotic mupirocin – less effective.^[iv]

Steriwave uses a proprietary photosensitizer, which is activated by a specific wavelength of red light, to eliminate infection-causing pathogens in the nose. The nose is a reservoir for pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA which are known to cause SSIs. Steriwave eliminates these pathogens, including superbugs, in a painless five-minute treatment and prevents them from spreading and causing infections. Importantly, unlike today’s antibiotics, the use of Steriwave does not trigger antimicrobial resistance.

The health economic analysis is being undertaken by YHEC, an internationally renowned provider of health economics evaluations, and will supplement the ongoing Steriwave pilot at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, which involves 500 elective hip and knee surgery patients over a period of six months. The findings will be used to support adoption of Steriwave across the NHS.

Dr Stuart Bond, Consultant Antimicrobial Pharmacist and Director of Innovation at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, commented: “We are very pleased to be partnering with Ondine and the YHEC on this economic analysis to support the promising results of the Steriwave pilot we have seen so far. The data from the health economic analysis will support the results of our pilot, and we hope to be able to share these later this year.”

Helen Hoyland, Head of Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber’s Office of Life Sciences portfolio, said: “Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber (formerly the Academic Health Science Network for the region) is pleased to be supporting this evaluation. We are commissioned by the Office of Life Sciences to support real-world evidence generation. We will work with the innovators and the Trust to publish the evaluation data, and then subsequently look to support further opportunities for the spread and adoption of Steriwave, working alongside the West Yorkshire Innovation Hub”.

Steriwave is also being used in major hospitals across Canada, including Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), The Ottawa Hospital (TOH), and the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute. Research recently published by VGH in the Canadian Journal of Surgery showed that the use of Steriwave in patients undergoing spine surgery resulted in a 66.5% reduction in post-surgical infection rates and $2.5 million in annual savings.^[v] No serious adverse events have ever been reported from Steriwave treatment.

[i] National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Surgical site infections: prevention and treatment NICE guideline [NG125], 2019, https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng125/chapter/Context)

[ii] Getting it Right First Time, SSI National Survey, April 2019, https://gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/SSI-Report-GIRFT-APRIL19e-FINAL.pdf)

[iii] Guest JF, Keating T, Gould D, et al Modelling the annual NHS costs and outcomes attributable to healthcare-associated infections in England BMJ Open 2020; 10:e033367. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033367

[iv] Naylor NR, Evans S, Pouwels KB, Troughton R, Lamagni T, Muller-Pebody B, Knight GM, Atun R, Robotham JV. Quantifying the primary and secondary effects of antimicrobial resistance on surgery patients: Methods and data sources for empirical estimation in England. Front Public Health. 2022 Aug 8;10:803943. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.803943. PMID: 36033764; PMCID: PMC9413182.

[v] Eryck Moskven, Daniel Banaszek, Eric C. Sayre, Aleksandra Gara, Elizabeth Bryce, Titus Wong, Tamir Ailon, Raphaële Charest-Morin, Nicolas Dea, Marcel F. Dvorak, Charles G. Fisher, Brian K. Kwon, Scott Paquette and John T. Street. Can J Surg November 15, 2023 66 (6) E550-E560; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cjs.016922