HemaFlo Announces Issuance of Key Patent for NephroFlow

Broad claims cover use of NephroFlow to treat Acute Kidney Injury

Carlsbad, CA /PRNewswire/ - HemaFlo Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued US Patent Number 9,119,880 covering the use of NephroFlow to treat acute kidney injury (AKI).

Dale Peterson, PhD, HemaFlo's founder, said, "We are pleased to secure our rights to such a powerful technology."

NephroFlow is a proprietary product that contains a Drag Reducing Polymer (DRP) with the potential to improve vascular perfusion and reduce the complications associated with AKI. In a rat model of ischemic AKI, NephroFlow demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in kidney function.

The initial indication for NephroFlow will be in post-surgical patients who have early stage AKI. Treatment with NephroFlow is intended to increase perfusion to the kidney and reduce the complications, morbidities and mortalities associated with prolonged and advanced-stage AKI. In the longer term, NephroFlow may have the potential to be administered to high-risk surgical patients to prophylactically reduce the incidence of AKI.

About HemaFlo Therapeutics
HemaFlo Therapeutics is a private company founded to develop a platform of Drag Reducing Polymers (DRPs) that have applicability in a number of acute and chronic disease states that are associated with decreased tissue perfusion due to reduced blood flow. DRPs can be given intravenously and act mechanically to reduce the friction (or drag) in flowing blood and to stimulate the dilation of blood vessels. This activity results in improved blood flow without a corresponding increase in blood pressure, which in turn improves tissue perfusion.

About Acute Kidney Injury
Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is an abrupt loss of kidney function that typically occurs within seven days of an inpatient or outpatient procedure and is one of the most severe complications observed in hospitalized patients. Damage of the kidney tissue is often caused by decreased blood flow (ischemia) due to surgery, vasoconstrictive drugs, sepsis, dehydration or imaging contrast agents. AKI may lead to chronic kidney disease and a number of other severe complications including cardiac or respiratory failure and death. There were an estimated seven million cases of AKI in the US in-patient hospital population in 2012. The literature suggests that incidence has long been under-reported but study estimates range from 20 to 25% of total hospitalizations. Most strikingly, almost half of the reported cases were characterized as "severe AKI" with a 24% mortality rate compared to 2% for patients without AKI. Additionally, patients who have experienced any level of AKI have an increased risk of subsequent heart attacks and chronic kidney disease, which is not curable and represents a lifetime sentence to a dialysis clinic.