Test helps in fight against lung infections and for treating other life-threatening ...( Edmonton Alberta A new test develop...)

Edmonton, Alberta A new test developed by Edmonton-based Innovotech™ Inc. will now allow doctors to more accurately identify the right antibiotics required to treat serious, chronic infections that are biofilm based. With more than 80 per cent of infections in the developed world caused by biofilms, the potential for this new breakthrough test, called bioFILM PA™, is of immense significance to the medical community.

Chronic infections place a major cost burden on the health system. Patients spend more time in hospitals, antibiotic costs and treatment costs increase as more aggressive treatment options are explored, and the potential always exists for these infections to cause death.

Until bioFILM PA™, treatment of chronic infections required trying different antibiotics until one or several together eliminated or controlled the bacteria in the biofilm. With each failed treatment, not only would a patient's health be jeopardized, and health care costs increased, but the bacteria would be more likely to develop resistance to one or more antibiotics. Biofilm infections can be 1000 times more resistant to antibiotics than conventional infections.

Now, for the first time ever, the breakthrough test developed by Innovotech™ Inc. has shown very positive results in selecting proper antibiotic treatment for serious lung infections in patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), a population recognized as having among the most life threatening lung infections. Clinical research of bioFILM PA™ shows how the test can provide guidance to doctors on the right antibiotics to treat infections in a biofilm state.

In developing bioFILM PA™, Innovotech™ recognized that current testing was for free-floating or single bacteria, whereas CF lung infections and other chronic infections were caused by bacteria in a biofilm state which are much more difficult to kill than free-floating bacteria.

Whil
'/>"/>