Commercial, Institutional and Industrial
More than 99% of all bacteria live in biofilm communities and once embedded in the biofilm the bacteria can be up to 1000 times more resistant to antibiotics, antimicrobials, disinfectants and the host immune system compared to their planktonic counterparts.
Biofilms can exist on all types of surfaces ranging from floors, walls, pipes and drains, and surfaces of equipment including stainless steel, aluminum, nylon, Teflon, rubber, plastic and glass. Two areas that Kane has explored are hard surface disinfectants and medical device coatings.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates the costs associated with food borne illness to be as high as $22 billion a year. This doesn’t include the billions lost every year due to spoiled product.
About 60-70% of hospital-acquired infections are associated with some type of implanted medical device. The worldwide production of biomedical devices is about $180 billion a year and expanding rapidly. All medical devices are susceptible to microbial colonization and infection as a result of biofilms.
“The in-vivo efficacy of catheters coated with this unique antimicrobial/antibiofilm composition prompts clinical evaluation of such an innovative approach”.
– Dr. Rabih Darouiche, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
Applications
Two areas that Kane is exploring are hard surface disinfectants and medical device coatings.
Kane Biotech has developed a broad-spectrum anti-microbial/anti biofilm medical device coating comprising two FDA-approved compounds, protamine sulfate and chlorhexidine (CHX). Chlorhexidine is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent that has been demonstrated to successfully prevent clinical infections associated with medical devices. Protamine sulfate works synergistically with CHX by facilitating its transport to the cytoplasm of the bacteria cell. Kane Biotech’s trademark for the medical device coating market is Aledex®. Kane has excellent data that demonstrates the product’s ability to inhibit the activity of numerous catheter associated pathogens and protect against related infections. Approximately 30 million catheters are sold in North America annually. Indwelling urinary catheters are used in approximately 15% to 25% of short term care patients and in all patients in intensive care units. Additionally, in the US alone, more than 150 million intravascular catheters are used and over 5 million central venous lines are inserted. This results in about 250,000 catheter biofilm related infections each year.
Kane Biotech is currently developing a hard surface disinfectant for the dispersal of biofilms in commercial, institutional and industrial settings.