ExThera Medical Corp.

Article preview from Start-Up - January, 2013 

In an effort to dramatically reduce the complications associated with bloodstream infections and their progression to sepsis,

ExThera Medical Corp. has developed a whole blood affinity therapy device for use in an extracorporeal circuit. Similar in concept to a filter for a swimming pool, the compact Seraph Microbind Affinity Blood Filter has the unique ability to safely remove a wide range of pathogens and toxins from the blood by employing immobilized heparin.

 ExThera Medical Corp.

Article preview from Start-Up - January, 2013 

Roughly one quarter of a million people in the US are diagnosed annually with bacteremia. Pathogens – including harmful bacteria, fungi, toxins, and viruses – can cause bloodstream infections that often lead to sepsis, the most costly reason for hospitalization, with a price tag exceeding $25 billion yearly and a roughly 40% mortality rate.

In an effort to dramatically reduce the complications associated with bacteremia and the progression of bacteremia to sepsis, ExThera Medical Corp. has developed a whole blood affinity (specific interaction) therapy device for use in an extracorporeal circuit. Similar in concept to a filter for a swimming pool, the compact Seraph Microbind Affinity Blood Filter has the unique ability to safely remove a wide range of pathogens and toxins from the blood by employing immobilized heparin. “A related type of heparin has been used clinically for at least 35 years as the safest blood-contacting surface, outside of the human vascular system,” says CEO Robert Ward. The company has devised a novel way to use the anticoagulant, so that Seraph could capture roughly 85% to 90% of the infectious agents that cause bacteremia and sepsis.

Through the millennia, pathogens and toxins have evolved to invade the human body by latching onto specific cell receptors that line the blood vessels within the major organs, veins, and arteries. Heparan sulfate is one of the receptors that many pathogens/toxins target. “Seraph mimics the binding sites that the pathogens and toxins use to attack the body,” Ward explains. The heparin is chemically bonded to microspheres of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethelene (the same biomaterial used in medical implants, particularly orthopedics) to achieve a large surface area, then the particles are packed into a small column that never enters the body.

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