Replies to post #24354 on CytoSorbents Corporation (CTSO)

[raptorjockey]

Thanks for the clarification Vinovista... The original grant was expanded recently from the US Army...

The focus is on Plasma, from Cytosorbents, Products, HemoDefend:

In June 2016, the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) awarded CytoSorbents a $150,000 Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer contract to develop blood purification technologies to enable universal plasma. Plasma is a core whole blood component that contains many essential proteins such as albumin and coagulation factors. It is often used to expand blood volume and restore the ability of blood to clot in many serious illnesses such as trauma and massive hemorrhage, shock, liver disease, severe burn injury, sepsis, and other conditions. It is also used in plasma exchange procedures to treat autoimmune diseases. More than 10,000 units of fresh frozen plasma are administered each day, or more than 3.6 million units per year, in the United States alone. With the exception of Type AB plasma, plasma typically requires blood-type matching with the patient to prevent incompatibilities and reduce the risk of major transfusion reactions. Because Type AB plasma lacks blood type-specific antibodies, it is called ‘universal plasma’ and can be readily administered to patients in emergency situations, making logistics fairly straightforward for both military and civilian applications. However, there are not enough Type AB plasma donors to supply current demand. Under this Phase I STTR program, HemoDefend™ is being modified to remove these blood-type specific antibodies from all blood-type plasmas to demonstrate the proof-of-concept production of a true ‘universal plasma’. In doing so, it may enable the relief of a major bottleneck in the availability of plasma to help address these major unmet medical needs.