ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. has announced the successful treatment of another plasminogen deficient patient, in the U.S., under a compassionate use IND.
Last December, the patient suffered a minor accident causing a puncture wound on his right middle finger. The wound subsequently became infected with Staphylococcus aureus and the infection spread widely within the hand. The patient required urgent surgery involving multiple surgical incisions in the fingers, palm and the back of the hand to drain the infection and preserve the function of his hand.
This surgery was followed by treatment with intravenous antibiotics for 1 month followed up with oral antibiotics. As of April 12, 4 months after the initial accident, his surgical wounds had still not healed.
Other medical complications caused by the patient’s plasminogen deficiency made him unable to travel to participate in ProMetic’s ongoing Phase 2/3 plasminogen deficiency clinical trial. Therefore he was treated under an Expanded Access protocol, enabling him to receive a similar treatment regimen to that used in the Phase 2/3 trial, and plasminogen was administered by hematologists in Los Angeles, California.
“We observed a progressive and systematic healing of all the wounds on the patient’s hand over a period of 2 weeks from his first plasminogen infusion. Within 3 hours after that first infusion, we saw minor bleeding from the wounds which stopped spontaneously, – the first sign of plasminogen’s effectiveness. This was followed by the formation of scabs on the wounds which started to fall off after 12 days, just as in the normal healing process”, said Dr. John Moran, ProMetic’s Chief Medical Officer. “We are all very impressed with the speed of healing of this patient’s wounds. What is even more remarkable is that the patient has reported a significant increase in the range of motion of his middle finger, which was contracted due to the infection. In fact, from needing to write using only his thumb and index finger, he can now bend his middle finger enough to write as normal”, added Dr. Moran.
“We are very pleased that we could provide plasminogen to this patient and of the remarkable demonstration of its clinical efficacy. The speed of recovery and scope of healing observed in this plasminogen deficient patient matches those generated by our Swedish colleagues at Omnio in their hard-to-treat wounds program”, commented Mr. Pierre Laurin, President and Chief Executive Officer of ProMetic. “This latest data reconfirms our belief that the potential clinical uses of plasminogen provides multiple product opportunities for ProMetic”.