Sask. women say new product reduces risk for catheter users
Solution prevents deadly infections, kills superbugs that resist antibiotics
Two Saskatchewan women are championing a new medical product they say not only lowers the rate of infections in intravenous catheter users, but also kills superbugs that don’t respond to antibiotic treatments.
Kitelock — originally developed by microbiologist Peter Kite — is not a drug. It’s a non-antibiotic, antimicrobial solution that acts as an anticoagulant and disinfectant. When the solution is injected into the catheter, it breaks down and defends against blood clot blockages and kills bacteria that cause infections.
It also helps to break down and stop the growth of biofilm — a slimy barrier created by the unwanted bacteria to protect itself.
“Specifically for high-risk patients that need these catheters longer term, one out of four — if they get an infection through this catheter — will die from that infection, not from their disease itself,” said Humboldt-born Karen Mueller, CEO of Sterilecare, the company producing the product for global markets.
“So this catheter that’s supposed to be saving their lives can also take it away.”
Hospitals use saline solution or heparin to clear catheter lines. That works to break down clots, but does “absolutely nothing ” to stop the growth of bacteria, says Sterilecare’s chief scientific officer, Chantal Lainesse, who works out of her home office just outside Saskatoon.
For patients using long-term catheters during chemotherapy or dialysis, if bacteria does begin forming in the line, it can make its way into the bloodstream, forcing the patient’s immune system to fight both the disease and an infection.
Lainesse said Kitelock could fit the World Health Organization’s global mandate to find new solutions that kill bacteria without antibiotics, to better protect against antibiotic resistant superbugs — which the United Nations calls a “global health emergency.”
“We have tested this in Canadian hospitals and all of the germs that were in these patients, we’ve tested those germs against our product, and we killed all of (the superbugs) including the biofilm,” Lainesse said.
Canada is the first country in the world to use Kitelock, which was approved by Health Canada in May 2016.
For the few patients already using the device, the results are undeniable, Mueller said.
“One of the stories is about a 10-year-old who has a central line for her care. She’s chronic, so she has (the catheter) for life. She used to go to emergency once or twice a month, she would have to miss school, and it was either for an infection or a blockage in the line. But since she’s been on our product for over a year, she’s not been to emergency once.”
Lainesse and Mueller said new innovations in the medical field can take two to five years to make it through the procurement process and demonstrate clinical and financial advantages.
The device is more expensive than the current options available, but once a patient develops an infection through their catheter it costs around $15,000 to treat the infection — which is about the same amount it would cost a patient to use Kitelock for eight years, Mueller said.
“It’s a game changer ... and we’re just trying to get it out there. If you think of penicillin and how it took a long time for penicillin to finally make its mark ... our product was compared by scientific groups as the next penicillin.”