SanSepsis brings breakthrough in treatment of blood poisoning

Amsterdam, June, 2018 – Sanquin and health tech venture builder NLC have jointly established SanSepsis, the company around the revolutionary technology to treat and even prevent blood poisoning. The developed method uses a special filter to remove bacteria that cause blood poisoning, or sepsis, relatively quickly and efficiently from the blood. By setting up the SanSepsis company, Sanquin and NLC want to bring this technology to the patient as quickly as possible.

In the Netherlands every year about 10,000 people with sepsis end up in intensive care, where, according to experts, sepsis is the number 1 cause of death. The number of people with sepsis rises on average by 8% per year and nearly 30% of patients eventually die from their consequences. Sepsis is caused by the spread of bacteria in the blood. The fastest possible treatment is vital. This is now being done with the help of antibiotics via the infusion. Unfortunately, this method of treatment is often ineffective, so that many patients die or sustain permanent damage. In addition, antibiotic resistance is increasing, which makes handling more difficult. There is therefore an urgent demand for innovative therapies that reinforce the current treatment and lead to better outcomes for the patient.
Dr. Heinrich Handel-Mazzetti, CEO of SanSepsis: “With the formation of the company, we are taking a big step to improve the treatment of sepsis.
 
We hope to meet the urgent demand for improved therapies that also bring less costs at the same time. ”
Sanquin has developed a unique method to remove bacteria that cause sepsis with a filter from the patient’s blood. The filtered blood is then reinfused to the patient. This method leads to a strong reduction in the amount of bacteria and can be applied to a very large number of different species of these bacteria. This technique significantly speeds up the treatment of sepsis, which is crucial in this disease, which often develops at lightning speed. Moreover, with this technology many costs can be saved.
SanSepsis is the first invention of Sanquinnovate, the innovative subsidiary of Sanquin that was founded last year. At the innovative course of 20-year-old Sanquin, the collaboration with NLC also fits Sanquin’s role in setting up a company around health-based inventions to actually bring care innovations to the patient. NLC also supports SanSepsis with attracting the necessary funding for research and further development. Sanquin remains actively involved in the research and development of SanSepis.