ThermoGenesis Corp has received notice from the European Patent Office of the allowance of 43 additional patent claims for the CryoSeal System, a thermodynamic medical device and a companion single-use sterile disposable device that harvests and concentrates the clotting and adhesive proteins fibrinogen, fibronectin, Factor VIII, Factor XIII, von Willebrands Factor and thrombin from a unit of patient plasma in about one hour. These wound healing proteins can be used by surgeons to stop tissue bleeding and to seal tissues.
Kevin Simpson, President & COO of ThermoGenesis Corp., said the Company is now providing the CryoSeal products to its distributor, Dideco S.p.A of Mirandola, Italy. In contrast to the "personalized" CryoSeal surgical sealant, the conventional fibrin sealants, which combine 10,000 or more units of plasma, remain vulnerable to new and re-emerging infections. Several newly discovered hepatitis viruses; parvovirus B-19 and agents of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies may pose risks to the safety of homologous and pooled plasma. By using the CryoSeal FS System, these risks are eliminated by using autologous or patient's own blood for the preparation of protein sealants.
Simpson also remarked that "these conventional sealants also contain ingredients sourced from bovine lung tissue and noted that in 2002, the Japanese government announced a ban on drugs containing bovine materials from 28 countries over fears that the human variant of 'mad cow disease' would be transmitted to patients. Consequently the market acceptance of CryoSeal surgical sealant made from the patient's own blood plasma may be significant."