Ondine Biomedical has completed recruitment for its phase 2 nasal photodisinfection technology that aims to demonstrate how its eradicates pathogens - specifically Staphylococcus aureus - in the nose.
The single-centre, BENEFIT-aPDT open-label study is being carried out at HCA Healthcare's Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia, and has recruited over 300 patients.
Recruited patients undergo a pre-surgery nasal culture to determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus, the main cause of surgical site infections.
Each patient then receives Ondine's nasal photodisinfection followed by a post-treatment culture, enabling evaluation of the efficacy across a wide range of patients and surgery types.
Carolyn Cross, Ondine's chief executive, said: "Completing patient recruitment on this Phase II trial is an important step in our clinical development, and we look forward to being able to share the trial results in due course.
“Ours is a truly novel approach to nasal disinfection, and we believe that our technology has the potential to have a significant effect on combatting SSIs, complications, and extended hospital stays."
SSIs are the leading cause of readmissions to hospital following surgery and a significant cause of post-surgical morbidity and mortality, with approximately 3% of patients who contract an SSI dying as a consequence.
Post-operative infections occur in up to 300,000 patients per year in the United States and cost the US healthcare system tens of billions of dollars a year.