Date: Aug 18, 2010 Source: NIH Success Stories (
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Technology Developed:
ECI Biotech has developed a stand alone rapid point of care diagnostic for wound infection, in addition to an affordable infection sensor diagnostic that can be incorporated into any advance wound care dressing.
Uses of Technology/Products/Service:
The Wound Healing Society recommends that all chronic and acute wounds be assessed for bioburden (at >10^6 colony forming units per gram of tissue (CFU/g) or any tissue level of beta hemolytic streptococci) prior to treatment or closure of the wound. However, the current methods used to assess bioburden include: visual signs, which are not accurate and clinical microbiology of swab samples and biopsies, that can take up to 3 days to get results.
Our bioburden diagnostic correlates to culture methods but is more affordable ($24.00) and faster (10 minutes) to allow for the proper treatment of the wounds the first time the patient is seen in the clinic. It is important to treat the infection early with a topical antibiotic or antimicrobial therapy before the infection reaches the blood stream and becomes much more serious and costly to the health care system. The cost of treating a blood stream MRSA infection is estimated to be $35,367/patient. In addition, certain types of wound treatments including engineered skin matrices can be very expensive and are counter indicated with infection, thus, it is important to properly diagnose to reduce the healing time of painful chronic wounds.
The ECI Biotech point of care diagnostic called ExpressDetect® detects bacterial proteases and may lead to the early detection of infection as well as the more judicious use of antibiotics and topical antimicrobial therapies. Our initial clinical findings indicate that detecting bacterial protease activity is a very good biomarker that correlates to bioburden in the wound.
Benefit to Company:
With this and other funding from NIH, ECI Biotech has been able to expand from a small R&D shop of 5 people to a product development powerhouse with 22 employees and 7 corporate deals in consumer and professional care.
How Product Was Commercialized:
Confidential at present.
Other Comments Related to Company's Success Story:
ECI Biotech has won numerous awards for its innovation of ExpressDetect® diagnostics. To date, ECI has secured an aggregate of $20M in grants, angel financing, corporate development funding, and state low interest loans.
Past R&D and/or Sales from this Project: $3.4M in 2010
Estimated Future Annual R&D and/or Sales from this Project: $30M by 2013
