CytoSorbents Awarded $150,000 Phase I STTR Contract for Universal Plasma Development

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Jun 22, 2016, 09:00 ET

MONMOUTH JUNCTION, N.J., June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CytoSorbents Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSO), a leader in critical care immunotherapy specializing in blood purification, announced that it was awarded a $150,000 Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract to develop blood purification technologies that may enable universal plasma. A successful Phase I effort will position the company to be competitive for selection in the Phase II STTR program, valued at more than $1 million.

Dr. Phillip Chan, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of CytoSorbents stated: "We are pleased to announce initial funding to expand our HemoDefend™ purification technology platform for blood transfusion products. Plasma is a core component of whole blood that contains many essential proteins such as albumin and coagulation factors. It is often used to expand blood volume and restore the ability of blood to clot in many serious illnesses such as trauma and massive hemorrhage, shock, liver disease, severe burn injury, sepsis, and other conditions. It is also used in plasma exchange procedures to treat autoimmune diseases. More than 10,000 units of fresh frozen plasma are administered each day, or more than 3.6 million units per year, in the United States alone."

Dr. Chan continued, "With the exception of Type AB plasma, plasma typically requires blood-type matching with the patient to prevent incompatibilities and reduce the risk of major transfusion reactions. Because Type AB plasma lacks blood type-specific antibodies, it is called 'universal plasma' and can be readily administered to patients in emergency situations, making logistics fairly straightforward for both military and civilian applications. However, there are not enough Type AB plasma donors to supply current demand. Under this Phase I STTR program, we plan to adapt our HemoDefend™ technology to remove these blood-type specific antibodies from all blood-type plasmas and demonstrate the proof-of-concept production of a true 'universal plasma'. In doing so, we hope to alleviate a major bottleneck in the availability of plasma to help address these major unmet medical needs."

This work is being funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) under contract W81XWH-16-C-0025.

About CytoSorbents Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSO)

CytoSorbents Corporation is a leader in critical care immunotherapy, specializing in blood purification. Its flagship product, CytoSorb®, is approved in the European Union with distribution in 34 countries around the world, as a safe and effective extracorporeal cytokine adsorber, designed to reduce the "cytokine storm" or "cytokine release syndrome" that could otherwise cause massive inflammation, organ failure and death in common critical illnesses such as sepsis, burn injury, trauma, lung injury, and pancreatitis, as well as in cancer immunotherapy. These are conditions where the risk of death is extremely high, yet no effective treatments exist. CytoSorb^® is also being used during and after cardiac surgery to remove inflammatory mediators, such as cytokines and free hemoglobin, which can lead to post-operative complications, including multiple organ failure. CytoSorb® has been used safely in more than 12,000 human treatments to date.

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. The Company has numerous products under development based upon this unique blood purification technology, protected by 32 issued U.S. patents and multiple applications pending, including HemoDefend™, ContrastSorb, DrugSorb, and others. Additional information is available for download on the Company's websites: http://www.cytosorbents.com and http://www.cytosorb.com

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