CamStent demonstrates effectiveness of its anti-microbial surface coating and raises £350K

CamStent Ltd, an emerging medical materials company, has announced today the results from a study which demonstrate that the Company’s first product from its surface coating platform exerts strong antimicrobial effects against the organisms primarily responsible for hospital-acquired urinary-tract infections. The Company also announced that it has closed £350K ($570K) of seed funding from a consortium of business angels. The funding will be used to optimise the Company’s product for licensing and clinical use.

CamStent’s first surface coating product, which was developed at the University of Sheffield Department of Chemistry by Professor Nick Williams, Professor Charles Sterling and Dr Ian Barlow, has been engineered to protect medical catheters from colonization by urinary tract microorganisms. The results of the recent study, carried out at the University of Brighton School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences by Dr Ian Cooper and Dr Anna Gilford, have demonstrated the product’s ability to reduce the number of live organisms adhering to exposed surfaces by 90%. Such a reduction is sufficient to interrupt the process underlying urinary tract infections, which account for up to 40% of all hospital-acquired infections1.

Catheter-Acquired urinary tract infections affect about half of all hospitalised adults who have urinary catheters in place for longer than a week2, leading to extended hospital stays and significant additional medical expenses.  Over 100m catheters are used by hospitals worldwide each year3, but current antimicrobial products fail to decrease infection rates in long-term use, creating a ready market to improve outcomes and decrease costs.

The funding round was over-subscribed and attracted a broad base of investors including London Business Angels, The Yorkshire Association of Business Angels, and the Cambridge investment community.  Paul White and Richard Milne have been appointed to CamStent’s Board as non-executive directors to support the company’s growth through the next phase of development. Paul White has over 30 years’ experience of public and private sector leadership in the healthcare industry and Richard Milne has over 20 years’ experience in commercial affairs, corporate governance and compliance.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr David Hampton, CEO of CamStent, said: “These results suggest that we could prevent infections that afflict millions of hospitalized patients each year. We will use this investment to continue refining the coating product to optimize its safety and effectiveness, leading towards a first human clinical study in 2012.”

CamStent is focused on building revenues through the development and licensing of its proprietary coatings platform. The first application of its proprietary technology will be to coat urinary catheters for the prevention of urinary tract infections. The company also has plans for a pipeline of other significant opportunities for variants of the surface coating technology in preventing biofilm attachment in other healthcare and consumer markets.

Neil MacDonald, Yorkshire Association of Business Angels Investor, said: “I’ve been really impressed with the product, the company and the clarity of the business plan. This platform technology has huge potential because it could be applied to any number of implants and devices where biofilm – and infection – are a problem.”