HemaFlo Therapeutics, Inc., a private company founded to develop a platform of DRPs, announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued US Patent Number 9,119,880 covering the use of NephroFlow to treat acute kidney injury (AKI).

Dale Peterson, PhD, HemaFlo’s founder, said, “We are pleased to secure our rights to such a powerful technology.”

NephroFlow is a proprietary product that contains a Drag Reducing Polymer (DRP) with the potential to improve vascular perfusion and reduce the complications associated with AKI. In a rat model of ischemic AKI, NephroFlow demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in kidney function.

The initial indication for NephroFlow will be in post-surgical patients who have early stage AKI. Treatment with NephroFlow is intended to increase perfusion to the kidney and reduce the complications, morbidities and mortalities associated with prolonged and advanced-stage AKI. In the longer term, NephroFlow may have the potential to be administered to high-risk surgical patients to prophylactically reduce the incidence of AKI.

Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is an abrupt loss of kidney function that typically occurs within seven days of an inpatient or outpatient procedure and is one of the most severe complications observed in hospitalized patients. Damage of the kidney tissue is often caused by decreased blood flow (ischemia) due to surgery, vasoconstrictive drugs, sepsis, dehydration or imaging contrast agents.

HemaFlo Therapeutics is a private company founded to develop a platform of Drag Reducing Polymers that have applicability in a number of acute and chronic disease states that are associated with decreased tissue perfusion due to reduced blood flow.