SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Silver Bullet Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held medical device company announced that the U.S Patent and Trademark Office issued Patent No. 8,927,004 for the release of antimicrobial metal ions to prevent infection.
This is the Company’s third issued patent in the past two years now covering not only substrates such as surgical meshes and sutures, but also orthopedic devices like screws and large-joint implants. The Company’s first product, currently pending European CE Mark approval is a cannulated bone screw that can galvanically accelerate the ionization process of silver and will be utilized to reduce microbial contamination for Orthopedic Reduction and Internal Fixation (ORIF) Procedures. There are nearly 700,000 inpatient ORIF procedures performed annually in the U.S. alone.
Paul Chirico, President and CEO of Silver Bullet Therapeutics stated, “This is a very exciting patent that not only adds to our growing IP portfolio, but protects our unique technology for galvanically releasing antimicrobial ions for a much broader range of medical products and devices, including surgical meshes and suture. In addition, our OrthoFuzIon® antimicrobial cannulated bone screw system and its impending European launch will be the first system of its kind in the market.”
Previous U.S. Patents issued, 8,221,396 and 8,771,323 provide significant coverage in the orthopedic and dental clinical arenas.
“We believe this is a very exciting development for the field of medicine and surgery since general orthopedic infections involving an implant are of particular concern for the orthopedic surgeon and podiatrists. In addition, the Silver Bullet Technology can be easily adapted to the majority of implanted medical devices already on the market. Data presented at a recent scientific meeting highlighted the fact that orthopedic surgical-site infections add an incremental $62k of cost per case,” noted Bohdan Chopko, Ph.D., M.D., Silver Bullet Therapeutics Co-Founder and Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University. “Medicine is much more complicated today,” Chopko added, “because we not only need to focus our energies on treating our patients but also satisfying the growing economic requirement of reducing health care expenditures.”
Mr. Chirico added, “Hospital acquired infections are a particular problem to the healthcare system, and MRSA alone has been estimated to cost the healthcare system $34 billion a year and account for over 8 million additional and unnecessary hospital days. Our technology, and associated IP, allow us to modify existing medical devices with an effective antimicrobial surface, that is not only biocompatible…but can work well in areas such as central catheters, shunts, suture, surgical mesh, large-joint implants and active cardiovascular implants.”
About Silver Bullet Therapeutics
Silver Bullet Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held company located in San Jose, CA, has developed and patented antimicrobial implants and medical devices to address surgical-site and hospital-acquired infections. The company’s first product, the OrthoFuzIon Cannulated Bone Screw, utilizes an advanced silver ion technology that allows for a faster, natural ionization of the silver and creating an antimicrobial zone around the screw to prevent microbial colonization of internal and external surfaces of the screw. OrthoFuzIon is a Trademark of Silver Bullet Therapeutics, Inc. and is not yet approved for sale in Europe or in the United States.
* Presented Feb. 2013 at North American Skull Base Society Meeting, San Diego, CA by Vinod Sahney, Ph.D. (keynote)
Contacts
Silver Bullet Therapeutics, Inc.
Paul Chirico, 408-436-7500
pchirico@svbtx.com
www.svbtx.com
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