ABOUT CYTOSORBENTS CORPORATION
CytoSorbents is a leader in critical care immunotherapy commercializing its CytoSorb® blood purification technology to reduce deadly uncontrolled inflammation in hospitalized patients around the world, with the goal of preventing or treating multiple organ failure in life-threatening illnesses. Organ failure is the cause of nearly half of all deaths in the intensive care unit, with little to improve clinical outcome. CytoSorb®, the Company’s flagship product, is approved in the European Union, or EU, as a safe and effective extracorporeal cytokine filter, designed to reduce the “cytokine storm” that could otherwise cause massive inflammation, organ failure and death in common critical illnesses such as sepsis, burn injury, trauma, lung injury, and pancreatitis. These are conditions where the mortality is extremely high, yet no effective treatments exist. In addition, CytoSorb® can be used in other inflammatory conditions such as cardiac surgery, autoimmune disease flares, and potentially for cancer, cytokine release syndrome in cancer immunotherapy, and cancer cachexia where cytokines play a major role in the cause of inflammation. CytoSorbents’ purification technologies are based on biocompatible, highly porous polymer beads that can actively remove toxic substances from blood and other bodily fluids by pore capture and surface adsorption. CytoSorbents has numerous products under development based upon this unique blood purification technology, protected by 32 issued U.S. patents and multiple applications pending, including HemoDefendTM, ContrastSorb, DrugSorb, and others.
In March 2011, we received EU regulatory approval under the CE Mark and Medical Devices Directive for our flagship product, CytoSorb®, as an extracorporeal cytokine filter indicated for use in clinical situations where cytokines are elevated. The goal of the CytoSorb® is to prevent or treat organ failure by reducing cytokine storm and the potentially deadly systemic inflammatory response syndrome in diseases such as sepsis, trauma, burn injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome, pancreatitis, liver failure, and many others. Organ failure is the leading cause of death in the intensive care unit, and remains a major unmet medical need, with little more than supportive care therapy (e.g., mechanical ventilation, dialysis, vasopressors, fluid support, etc.) as treatment options. By potentially preventing or treating organ failure, CytoSorb® may improve clinical outcome, including survival, while reducing the need for costly intensive care unit treatment, thereby potentially saving significant healthcare costs.
Our CE Mark enables CytoSorb® to be sold throughout all 28 countries of the EU. In addition, many countries outside the EU accept CE Mark approval for medical devices, but may also require registration with or without additional clinical studies. The broad approved indication enables CytoSorb® to be used “on-label” in diseases where cytokines are elevated including, but not limited to, critical illnesses such as those mentioned above, autoimmune disease flares, cancer cachexia, and many other conditions where cytokine-induced inflammation plays a detrimental role.
Cytokines are small proteins that normally stimulate and regulate the immune response. However, in certain diseases, particularly life-threatening conditions commonly seen in the intensive care unit, or ICU, such as sepsis and infection, trauma, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), severe burn injury, liver failure, and acute pancreatitis, cytokines are often produced in vast excess — a condition often called cytokine storm. Left unchecked, this cytokine storm can lead to a severe maladaptive systemic inflammatory response syndrome, or SIRS, that can then cause cell death, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome or MODS, and multiple organ failure, MOF. Failure of vital organs such as the heart, lungs, and kidneys, accounts for nearly half of all deaths in the intensive care unit. This is despite the wide availability of supportive care therapies, or “life support”, such as dialysis, mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and vasopressors. By replacing the function of failed organs, these supportive care therapies can initially help to keep patients alive, but do not help patients recover faster, and in many cases can increase the risk of dangerous complications. Unlike these supportive care therapies, the goal of the CytoSorb® cytokine filter is to pro-actively prevent or treat organ failure by reducing cytokine storm and reducing the maladaptive SIRS response. In doing so, CytoSorb® targets the reduction in the severity of patient illness and the need for intensive care, while potentially improving clinical outcome and saving healthcare costs.
As part of the CE Mark approval process, we completed our randomized, controlled, European Sepsis Trial amongst 14 trial sites in Germany in 2011, with enrollment of 100 patients with sepsis and respiratory failure. The trial established that CytoSorb® was safe in this critically-ill population. Taking into account all 100 patients, the treatment was well-tolerated with no serious device related adverse events reported in more