Contact Information: Contact Name: George Frodsham E-mail: george@medisieve.co.uk Website: https://www.medisieve.com/
Funding required: £8m
MediSieve is a London-based Biotech start-up that has developed Magnetic Haemofiltration, a revolutionary platform therapy that enables the physical removal of specific substances from the bloodstream of patients. It can be used to (1) treat disease, (2) improve the safety and efficacy of other therapies, and (3) to deliver drugs. The Problem Many substances that circulate in blood can cause serious clinical problems. Toxins, pathogens, cells, cytokines, harmful antibodies and others directly cause diseases, many of which can be fatal. Others block drug therapies (preventing them from reaching their intended target in the body), reducing safety and effectiveness. Despite the clear potential benefits, there is no technology available today that is able to physically remove specific substances from the bloodstream. Several technologies exist that can remove various substances from blood – extracorporeal therapies such as dialysis have been around since 1945 – but none are specific. They are limited in terms of what they can remove, and often remove the “good” with the “bad”, limiting their effectiveness and breadth of their applications. One disease for which no solution exists is Acute Hyperinflammation. Afflicted patients overreact to an infection causing their immune systems to start attacking their own bodies; mortality can be up to 30%. These overreactions are driven by an overproduction of inflammatory cytokines, with IL-6 playing a major role. No existing technology can specifically target and remove IL-6, and there is no approved treatment for these patients.
The Solution The Magnetic Haemofiltration System (“MHS”) is a Class II therapeutic-device combination that enables the selective removal of clinical targets directly from the bloodstream. The platform is an extracorporeal therapy: during the procedure a patient’s blood is circulated through an external blood loop. Nanoengineered magnetic beads, when injected in the loop, seek out and bind specifically to the targets. A magnetic filter then captures the beads and bound targets before they return to the body. Practically any target can be removed including specific cells, inflammatory cytokines, pathogens and antibodies, providing a platform to treat a huge range of medical conditions. Conjugating a drug to the surface of the beads also enables extracorporeal, time-controlled delivery of drugs with bloodborne targets. The first application targets and removes IL-6, intending to treat patients suffering from acute hyperinflammation. The rapid and selective removal of IL-6 in these patients (who include those suffering from pancreatitis, cytokine release syndrome, ARDS, critical COVID-19 and others) would be a novel and potentially life-saving intervention. The safety and efficacy of the IL-6 MHS has been demonstrated and the technology is ready to enter first-in-man clinical studies; ethics and regulatory approval have been granted for the first part of the studies.
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