Ondine Biomedical (AIM:OBI), the AIM-listed developer of light-activated antimicrobial therapies for hospital infection prevention, said five Southern Ontario hospitals are deploying its Steriwave nasal photodisinfection technology.
The hospitals, serving a combined population of more than 3 million people, expect to use Steriwave across approximately 4,300 hip and knee replacement patients and 700 spine surgery patients annually.
Surgical site infections remain a costly complication in these procedures, with a Canadian study cited by the company estimating complex infections add roughly C$99,000 in healthcare costs per patient today, adjusted for inflation from 2016 figures.
Steriwave targets Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA in the nasal cavity, a common source of bacteria that migrates to surgical wounds, using a clinician-administered treatment shortly before surgery rather than the multi-day antibiotic ointments traditionally used.
The rollout follows Ondine's recent announcement of positive topline results from its 5,188-patient LANTERN Phase 3 trial in the United States and Canada, which met its primary efficacy endpoint for reducing surgical site infections.
"By introducing Steriwave across approximately 5,000 surgical patients annually, these hospitals are taking a proactive step to strengthen patient care and reduce the burden of preventable infections," said Carolyn Cross, chief executive of Ondine Biomedical.
The deployments extend Steriwave's use across Canadian hospitals, part of Ondine's strategy of targeting high-volume surgical pathways before expanding to additional sites and patient populations.
Detailed analysis of the complete LANTERN trial dataset is ongoing.