An inhalation solution for early treatment and prevention
Despite intense therapeutic interventions, the lack of treatment success in some ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) patients most likely derives from biofilm formation within the tubes and the lungs and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, and these two conditions markedly decrease the efficacy of traditional antibiotics. As SIS kills both resistant bacteria and bacteria in biofilm, the treatment of VAP patients with SIS can change the clinical outcome for these patients.
Further, SIS is also developed as a medical countermeasure in a large international project supported by the European Defence Fund and the Norwegian Ministry of Defence. In our pillar of the project, SoftOx together with partners from six EU countries develop SIS into a medical countermeasure against biological threats/weapons. Defending soldiers (and civils) from biological threats is normally difficult both due to the time it takes to identify the pathogen and due to the potential lack/delay of relevant treatment to reach the involved. Due to SIS’s broad-spectrum antimicrobial technology, it can be inhaled to kill technically any pathogen, and this would save valuable time as treatment can be initiated immediately after an attack.
Several other airway infections could potentially also be treated with SIS. A large and relevant group is viral airway infections, like influenza, COVID-19, and other respiratory viruses inducing influenza-like illness with peaks each autumn and winter. Vaccination programs and targeted antiviral treatments are available for some causes of influenza-like illness. However, these treatment and prevention options are limited to a small subset of viruses, and rapid viral mutations limit their efficacy. The continual rollout of new vaccination boosters and drug cocktails is also expensive and resource-intensive on healthcare services.
The pan-virucidal effects of SIS circumvent the need for expensive diagnostic procedures and potential delays in treatment. Due to its non-specific mechanism of virus inactivation, the effect of SIS remains despite viral mutations and could be an ideal “go-to” intervention also for new emergent viruses.
Key Features
How it works
SIS is an aqueous, isotonic formulation of hypochlorous acid, stabilized for aerosolization and suitable for administration to the respiratory tract using a standard nebulizer. SoftOx hypothesizes that SIS inactivates and kills intracellular and extracellular bacteria and viruses in the upper and lower respiratory tract, resulting in a reduction in bacterial/viral load, thereby improving symptoms, shortening disease duration, and preventing onward disease transmission. Such a drug would be ideal in the efforts to limit the health and societal impact of Influenza, SARS-CoV-2 etc. and future pandemics as well as for patients suffering from Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP).