The presentation highlights the critical, yet often underestimated, role of medical devices in healthcare delivery and proposes an innovative antimicrobial technology embedded within these devices as a proactive solution to combat rising infections, particularly in the context of antimicrobial resistance.
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Okay. Can everybody hear me? Okay. Yeah.
Perfect. Cool. Um, so hello everybody.
Uh, my name is Dr. Georgia Fleet. I am a
co-founder and CEO at Zenova. Um, I am a
material scientist by background. Um,
I've been working in material science
for about 10 years across my PhD and
also in industry um, and more in the
more recent years specifically
antimicrobial um, materials.
Um, for context, I work across both
animal and human health. Um, so full
disclosure, the data is basically all
human health data. Um, and I've worked
the animal health sections into it. It's
just where there are quite a few gaps in
the animal health sets of data, whereas
the human stuff is a lot obviously
bigger and more clear.
So, what I'm going to talk to you about
today is um really like medical devices
and medtech and I feel there's a bit of
a it's a bit of an under underestimated
um infrastructure to all healthcare. If
you think about it, medical devices are
really core to delivering all health
care across both animal and human
health. And what I mean by medical
devices are things like, you know, your
IVs, um, you know, CBC's, urinary
catheters, ET tubes, all those like
plastic tubing, um, you know, orthopedic
implants, they are all helping you to
deliver healthare. Um, and really what
the focus has been on um, so far in
terms of antimicrobial resistance does
center a lot around drugs and
diagnostics, right? Um, I think we just
heard the pathway to developing new
drugs is insanely long and insanely
expensive and right now we just don't we
simply just don't have enough new
antimicrobials in the pipeline to kind
of save us from the looming
antimicrobial resistance crisis. Um, so
really what Sonova is about is getting a
little bit creative with this, getting a
little bit inventive and trying to stop
and prevent infections at the source so
that we're not getting to the point
where fair enough we can diagnose
something in two seconds and but you
know we can't actually treat it at the
end of the day because we don't have any
effective working antimicrobial
treatments. Um, so drugs and diagnost
diagnostics are absolutely vital. Um,
but by then the infection's already
there, right? So what if we could stop
these infections before they ever start?
Um and that's where we really come in
with out of box innovations that kind of
tackle the hidden infrastructure of
infection. Um so you know devices but
not just devices, things like surfaces,
you know, systems that are allowing
bacteria to grow and take hold. Simple
things like sinks in hospitals are
massive reservoirs for bacteria. Um and
they just kind of go under the radar a
little bit. Um so by targeting the point
that infections begin, I really do think
we can cut them off at the source. And
that's going right back to the beginning
of today with Danny Chambers kind of
talking about going right back to the
source of these infections. Um, and
biased additional time in a world where
antibiotics might not be available.
So one in 10 patients actually develop
infections from these medical devices in
hospitals. Um, so if you go into
hospital, you've got a one in 10 chance
of getting an infection simply from
being in hospital. And about 70% of
those are directly linked back to these
types of devices. Um, and as you can see
here just from the photos, this was from
a clinical study that I ran back in
2022. Um, it's a human endotracheal
tube. But after a few days, you get
really disgusting bacterial biofilm
growing on these tubes and then that's
leading to pneumonia. And actually what
started my journey on this was having a
conversation with a critical care
consultant at UC who said he thought his
leading cause of death in his unit was
secondary infections like ventilator
associated pneumonia. Um which I just
thought was absolutely ridiculous.
Um and it is harming patients across
both animal and human health. Um they've
got really high likelihood of infections
you know and the main the main three
kind of problems problem areas here are
the vascular access devices um
incubation devices. So the endotracheal
tube specifically more for humans um and
also urinary catheterss and that goes
across both animal and human health. Um
here you've got the infection rates in
the human world. Um and bar the
incubation one which there isn't any
data on and you know animals just don't
tend to be incubated for long enough to
be that problematic with infections. Um
but in terms of your vascular access and
your urinary the data does show that in
animal health the rates of colonization
do mirror this. Um, so you've got a few
common culprits here. So they range
from, you know, gram positive bacteria,
gram negative bacteria, also fungus is
kind of making a move now as well. And
they're causing really serious
life-threatening infections. So we
thought that it was time that we stop
just accepting this as something that
happens and to actually do something
about it.
Enter Senova. Um, so what we've
developed is an antimicrobial
technology, a compound that is embedded
into these devices. And what it does is
once it's embedded into the devices and
like the plastics themselves, it creates
this protective surface on the plastic
that is actively killing organisms on
contact. Um big benefits are is that it
integrates directly into the
manufacturing process. So it's not a
coating. There's no impact on the
regulatory classification um in terms of
the medical device which means we can
get it to market sooner. Um, and really
the big win is that it actually enables
infection prevention at a major source
with no change to doctor or vet behavior.
Um, and here are just some results. Um,
these are all in vitro lab results that
we've conducted ourselves. This is
actually a plate that I did. Um, this is
a plate of MRSA. Um, but we get great
activity across the board against gram
positive, gram negative and uh fungus.
So ones to point out here as well is
that the MRSA and the sudamonus are
actually clinical strains. The sudamonus
is an ESPL producing strain and these
were directly taken because they
couldn't be killed by any antibiotics
So to zoom that back out and kind of
focus on the value actually that this
brings as well and put it into wider
context is that we spend 2.7 billion
just in the UK fighting just hospital
infections. Um which is higher in a
recent report. It's higher than treating
all smoking related illnesses. So it is
just a bit crazy that this isn't
something that we're focusing on more.
Um and you know we're absolutely not the
first people to try and take this angle.
There are quite a few devices out there
in terms of primarily wound dressings
that focus on silver and honey. Um
silver being the dominant one in the
market, but there are quite significant
evidence gaps um in efficacy and that is
therefore now driving uh quite a lot of
push back from regulators.
Um so therefore, you know, everyone's
looking for, you know, alternatives to
silver that are really active on a broad
spectrum level. Um so we think you know
we're in a really good position here to
kind of come in as a non-coating broadly
effective non-leing antimicrobial
technology. Um and the exciting news is
that we've got veterary IV study IV
pilot studies set up across three
veterary hospitals um in the UK. So
we're very very much on our way to
proving this in the real world.
Hopefully we'll start getting that data
back um middle of next year.
Um, so just to finish off, you know,
this is just one part of the puzzle and
I really hope that this hasn't come
across as me just kind of being like,
don't invest in drugs or don't invest in
diagnostics. It's not about that at all.
Um, but I think this all needs to work
together and we I think we do need to
start thinking a little bit more
creatively about this. So, you know,
working alongside drugs, diagnostics,
good stewardship, awareness, um, and
broader health care innovation.
So, that is all I have to say. And thank
you so much for staying awake and listening.
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