Fresenius Medical Care and CytoSorbents Expand Original Partnership and Add New Co-Marketing Agreement for Worldwide CytoSorb® Markets
Agreement brings increased commitment with 3-year renewal, guaranteed minimum orders of CytoSorb, and establishes joint CytoSorb marketing efforts in active sales territories
MONMOUTH JUNCTION, N.J., Jan. 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CytoSorbents Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSO), a critical care immunotherapy leader commercializing its flagship CytoSorb® blood adsorber to treat deadly inflammation in critically-ill and cardiac surgery patients in 42 countries globally, and Fresenius Medical Care (FMC), the world's largest dialysis company, have agreed to broaden the terms of their existing partnership and to add an expansive co-marketing agreement for CytoSorb in countries where the therapy is available today.
Increased commitment with 3-year renewal and guaranteed minimum orders of CytoSorb – Under the terms of the revised 3-year agreement, CytoSorbents extends FMC's exclusive distributorship of CytoSorb for critical care applications in France, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway through 2019. Within these countries, FMC will develop and promote an integrated CytoSorb CRRT kit consisting of CytoSorb and FMC's CytoSorb-compatible blood tubing set. As part of the deal, FMC agrees to make guaranteed minimum quarterly orders and payments, evaluable every one and a half years.
Signed Co-marketing agreement for all existing CytoSorb markets – Under the terms of a new comprehensive co-marketing agreement, CytoSorbents and FMC will jointly market CytoSorb and FMC's CytoSorb-compatible blood tubing sets to FMC's critical care customer base in all countries where CytoSorb is being actively commercialized, where feasible. CytoSorbents and its existing distributors will continue to market, take, sell, and fulfill all CytoSorb orders. FMC and its affiliates will identify and open new CytoSorb sales opportunities, make customer introductions with CytoSorbents and its assigned distributors, and take and fulfill orders for FMC's CytoSorb-compatible blood tubing sets. Both groups will jointly develop co-branded international marketing materials to support this program. FMC will also provide a written endorsement of CytoSorb for use with FMC's multiFiltrate and multiFiltratePRO acute care dialysis machines that can be used by CytoSorbents and its distribution partners to promote CytoSorb worldwide. It is expected that the written endorsement, joint marketing materials, and co-marketing program will commence starting in the second half of 2017.
"CytoSorb is an integral part of FMC's acute care growth strategy and we are delighted to renew and enhance our commitment to CytoSorbents and this important therapy," stated Mr. Christian Schlaeper, Vice President of Therapy Marketing at Fresenius Medical Care. "With our significant sales and marketing capabilities throughout the world, we plan to accelerate awareness, adoption, and usage of CytoSorb. This is a win-win scenario, giving our doctors access to an important therapy to help save the lives of their critically-ill patients, while increasing the utilization of our large international installed base of multiFiltrate and multiFitratePRO machines, and driving usage of our own disposables. We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with CytoSorbents to date, and look forward to this next chapter of our partnership."
Mr. Chris Cramer, Vice President of Business Development for CytoSorbents stated, "This revised multi-year agreement with FMC, the global leader in dialysis, brings our partnership to the world stage and is expected to result in many synergies on both sides. In particular, the support of CytoSorb by FMC's world-class sales and marketing teams will significantly augment the coverage of our existing direct sales and distributor efforts in many of the current 42 counties where CytoSorb is being commercialized today. In addition, we will have the ability to bring this program and its benefits to new CytoSorb territories as they are added in the future. The anticipated access to many new FMC physician relationships under this agreement is predicted to spark strong interest and excitement in the therapy, helping to power future sales growth of both CytoSorb and FMC's multiFiltrate and multiFiltratePRO platforms. This agreement is a major milestone in the evolution of our partnership."
Financial terms of this agreement have not been disclosed.
About CytoSorbents Corporation (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 42 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. CytoSorbents has completed its REFRESH (REduction in FREe Hemoglobin) 1 trial - a multi-center, randomized controlled study that supports the safety of intra-operative CytoSorb® use in a heart-lung machine during complex cardiac surgery. In 2017, the company plans to initiate a pivotal REFRESH 2 trial intended to support U.S. FDA approval. CytoSorb® has been used safely in more than 17,000 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. Its technologies have received non-dilutive grant, contract, and other funding in excess of $20 million from DARPA, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and others. 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 CytoSorb-XL, HemoDefend™, ContrastSorb, DrugSorb, and others. For more information, please visit the Company's websites at www.cytosorbents.com and www.cytosorb.com or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
About Fresenius Medical Care
Fresenius Medical Care is the world's largest provider of products and services for individuals with renal diseases of which around 2.8 million patients worldwide regularly undergo dialysis treatment. Through its network of 3,579 dialysis clinics, Fresenius Medical Care provides dialysis treatments for 306,366 patients around the globe. Fresenius Medical Care is also the leading provider of dialysis products such as dialysis machines or dialyzers. Along with the core business, the company focuses on expanding the range of related medical services in the field of Care Coordination. Fresenius Medical Care is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FME) and on the New York Stock Exchange (FMS).
For more information about Fresenius Medical Care, visit the company's website at www.freseniusmedicalcare.com
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| CytoSorbents Contact: Investor Relations (732) 398-5394 |
CytoSorbents Public Relations Contact: Amy Phillips Pascale Communications 412-327-9499 |
SOURCE CytoSorbents Corporation
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