Asep was selected to be a part of a special series titled Empowered, Hosted by Meg Ryan, focusing on science, technology and medicine leaders.
VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Asep Medical Holdings Inc. ("Asep Inc." or the "Company") (CSE: ASEP) (OTCQB: SEPSF) (FSE: JJ8) is pleased to announce that its innovative sepsis diagnostic test will be getting national exposure in the US through a documentary series called Empowered, Hosted by Meg Ryan, now being aired on Public Television. The documentary, written and produced by Summit Studios of Boca Raton, FL, features interviews with Asep's Founder and CEO, Dr. Robert E. W. Hancock and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Evan Haney. To view the documentary, click here.
Asep Medical Holdings Inc. logo (CNW Group/ASEP Medical Holdings Inc.)
In July of 2023, one of Asep's news releases announcing its groundbreaking AI-based technology for the rapid identification of sepsis caught the attention of the producers of the docuseries. Sepsis is a debilitating and severe disease that is responsible for one in five deaths worldwide1, and essentially all deaths from pandemic microbes like COVID-19. After a few meetings, the producers decided to bring the Asep story to its audience of over 60 million households in the US. The segment is distributed to over 170 Public Television stations in the US and will continue running for about a year.
"This is an exciting opportunity for us to help educate a large audience about the seriousness of sepsis and provide hope for a faster, more reliable diagnostic tool for emergency room teams worldwide," said Dr. Hancock. "Once our technology is FDA cleared, we expect to see our test kits widely distributed to hospitals across the US."
According to Dr. Evan Haney, Asep's CSO, "It is critical to identify sepsis as early as possible due to the 7.6% increased risk of death2 for every hour of delay in diagnosis and initiation of appropriate treatment. No conventional assay accurately predicts sepsis onset in the first hours after a patient enters the hospital. Our team has found that our test, called SepsetER, can help assess whether a patient will subsequently acquire sepsis in 9 out of 10 patients in the ICU, and 7 of 10 patients in the emergency department, based on analysis of company and published data."
The technology was developed using an innovative team approach, including microbiologists and computer scientists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. "We've harnessed the power of AI to identify a minimum number of genes involved in the immune dysfunction underlying sepsis and translated this discovery to an in vitro diagnostic assay that can accurately identify those patients at highest risk of progressing to sepsis and associated organ failure," said Dr. Hancock.
Chief Operating Officer Tim Murphy said, "We hope that current and prospective investors will take the time to tune in to PBS and learn a little more about our Company and the great work our scientific team is doing to tackle a global health crisis where every hour counts."
ABOUT ASEP MEDICAL HOLDINGS INC. Asep Medical Holdings Inc. (asepmedical.com) is dedicated to addressing the global issue of antibiotic failure by developing novel solutions for significant unmet medical needs in human medicine. The Company is a consolidation of three existing private companies, all with technology in advanced development — Sepset Biosciences Inc. (proprietary diagnostic tools to enable the early and timely identification of sepsis), ABT Innovations Inc. (broad-spectrum therapeutic agents to address multi-drug resistant biofilm infections), and SafeCoat Medical Inc. (an antimicrobial peptide, anti-fouling medical device coating technology).
Sepset Biosciences Inc. (sepset.ca) is developing a diagnostic technology that involves a patient gene expression signature that helps assess the development of severe sepsis, one of the significant diseases leading to antibiotic failure, since antibiotics are the primary treatment for sepsis. Sepsis was responsible for nearly 20% of all deaths on the planet in 2017 and essentially all deaths due to COVID-19 and other pandemics. The SepsetER test is a blood-based gene expression assay that is straightforward to implement, and results are obtained about an hour after taking a blood sample in the emergency room or intensive care unit. This proprietary diagnostic technology differs from current diagnostic tests, enabling the risk assessment for progression to severe sepsis within 60 minutes of initiating the test. Bacterial culture, the gold standard, provides a diagnosis after ~15 hours but can be as long as three days. Asep Inc. believes its test will enable physicians to make critical early decisions regarding appropriate therapies and thus reduce overall morbidity and mortality due to sepsis.
ABT Innovations Inc.'s (abtinnovations.ca) peptide technology covers a broad range of therapeutic applications, including bacterial biofilm infections (medical device infections, chronic infections, lung, bladder, wound, dental, skin, ear-nose and throat, sinusitis, orthopaedic, etc.), anti-inflammatories, anti-infective immune-modulators and vaccine adjuvants. The company is in the pre-clinical development phase with promising data.
SafeCoat Medical Inc.'s (safecoatmedical.com) technology incorporates self-assembling biocompatible polymers combined with conjugated antimicrobial peptides and applied to virtually any surface as stable antimicrobial and/or anti-fouling coatings. Of particular interest is the application of this versatile antimicrobial coating to various medical devices and implants that often become contaminated with biofilm infections. SafeCoat is optimizing methods to manufacture and apply these anti-bacterial coatings to a host of surfaces and can tailor the composition of the coating and associated peptide sequences for any desired application.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS — This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of such statements under applicable securities law. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "anticipates," "plan," "continue," "expect," "project," "intend," "believe," "anticipate," "estimate," "may," "will," "potential," "proposed," "positioned" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements include but are not limited to the successful clinical testing of our Sepsis in vitro diagnostic test and its intended filing for regulatory market authorization; the Company not receiving regulatory market authorization as planned or at all; the undertaking of pre-clinical studies on our lead therapeutic, with the expectation that this will lead to fast-track clinical trials; the timeframe for identification of sepsis with the company's products; the potential opportunities for the generation of revenue; the therapeutic benefits of the company's products; and other statements regarding the company's proposed business plans. Various assumptions were used in drawing conclusions or making the predictions contained in the forward-looking statements throughout this news release. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks including the risk that the company's products may not perform as expected; that the company may not receive the requisite regulatory market authorization or results of testing; the Company's testing of the products may not be successful and market authorization may not be obtained in the estimated timelines or at all; the company may not be able to generate revenue from its products as expected or at all; the market for the company's products may not be as described in this news release; and various other risk factors identified in the Asep Medical Inc.'s prospectus dated November 9, 2021, and in the company's management discussion and analysis, available for review under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Asep Medical Inc. is under no obligation and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.
ENDNOTES 1https://www.biophysics.org/2024meeting#/ 2 Kumar, A. et al. Duration of hypotension before initiation of effective antimicrobial therapy is the critical determinant of survival in human septic shock. Crit Care Med 34, 1589–1596 (2006).
