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CytoSorbents Awarded $2,897,172 Phase III STTR Contract to Advance HemoDefend-BGA Plasma and Whole Blood Filter to Clinical Trials
MONMOUTH JUNCTION, N.J., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CytoSorbents Corporation (NASDAQ:CTSO), a critical care immunotherapy leader specializing in blood
About this update from Cytosorbents Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"MONMOUTH JUNCTION, N.J., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CytoSorbents Corporation (NASDAQ:CTSO), a critical care immunotherapy leader specializing in blood purification, announced today that it was awarded a Defense Health Agency Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase III contract, valued at up to $2,897,172 over 2 years, to advance its HemoDefend-BGA plasma and whole blood adsorber to human clinical trials. The program, entitled \"Development of a Highly Efficient Adsorber to Remove Anti-A and Anti-B Antibodies from Blood and Plasma for Transfusion,\" is being funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). This follows the successful completion of Phase I and II STTR contracts of approximately $1.15 million with researchers at Penn State University, previously funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command (USAMRMC).\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nPlasma and whole blood are life-saving blood products, particularly in civilian and combat trauma where the loss of blood, or hemorrhage, is the leading cause of preventable deaths. However, these products have limitations due to the presence of anti-A and anti-B antibodies in the blood plasma that can cause hemolytic transfusion reactions in an incompatible recipient. \nThe HemoDefend-BGA filter is part of the HemoDefend™ family of blood transfusion filters, and is fundamentally different from the HemoDefend-RBC filter for packed red blood cells. The HemoDefend-BGA filter is designed to enable \"universal plasma\", or plasma that can be administered to anyone regardless of blood type, and to improve the safety of whole blood transfusions, by the rapid and efficient removal of anti-A and anti-B antibodies from these two blood products. An advanced HemoDefend-BGA prototype was developed previously under the prior STTR Phase II program. \nDr. Maryann Gruda, PhD, Principal Investigator and Director of Biology of CytoSorbents stated, \"We are excited to take this next major step in the development of the HemoDefend-BGA adsorber. A tremendous amount of effort and innovation has gone into the current prototype that has exceeded program performance expectations. With this new funding, we plan to optimize our pr...