Batttelle with NxStage Medical, and Aethion Medical was awarded a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop an innovative new medical device to treat sepsis. This contract which is funded in phases for up to $22.83 million and may last as long as four years.
As many as ten percent of combat wounds result in life threatening infections that ultimately lead to septicemia and/or sepsis. When sepsis is complicated by shock, approximately half of the patients do not survive 30 days even if effective antibiotics are used. “This device could save many of our soldier’s lives each year in the U.S. alone”, said Martin Toomajian, President of Battelle Energy, Health, and Environment.
Originally, DARPA created the Dialysis-Like Therapeutics (DLT) program to develop a portable device that would create a holistic treatment for sepsis. The device would remove blood from the body, separate harmful dirty agents from the blood and return cleaned blood to the body in a manner similar to dialysis treatment for kidney failure.
Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program, the research program attracted experts from many scientific and engineering segments at Battelle. “This program uses a highly diverse set of resources ranging from medical device design to biological testing to meet the exacting needs of the military medical environment,” said Steve Kelly, President of Battelle National Security.
Working closely with Battelle, NxStage will design, develop, ultimately manufacture, and distribute the medical device upon regulatory approval. Aethion is developing and has plans to distribute key blood separation component technologies to use for the DLT system.
For more information, go to www.battelle.org.