Silver Bullet Therapeutics Awarded Patent for Implants That Prevent Bone Infection

San Jose, Calif.-based Silver Bullet Therapeutics Inc., medical device company that makes antimicrobial medical devices, announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office allowed a new patent, “bone implants for the treatment of infection.” The company has also made an expedited CE mark filing for a significantly expanded OrthofuzIon Antimicrobial Bone Screw System product line.

“Not only has our IP portfolio swelled to 14 U.S. and international issued or allowed patents, we have also effectively proven out our technology in surgical mesh and surface preparations for almost any implant,” said Paul Chirico, president and CEO of Silver Bullet Therapeutics. “Our strategy is validated daily by either a news story of a medical device related surgical site infection, or the fact that a few of the large medical device companies are realizing that antimicrobial devices advance the practice of medicine, and set the stage for the next evolution of medical devices.”

Statistics back up the need for antimicrobial medical devices. Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) caused from antimicrobial growth, or biofilm, on medical devices is estimated to cost the U.S. healthcare system over $35 billion annually, with Centers for Disease Control figures suggesting that surgical site infections account for over 30 percent of all HAIs in hospitalized patients.

“In addition to the challenges of taking care of our patients, we continuously have to be ever-vigilant of surgical site infections,” said Bohdan Chopko, Ph.D, M.D., co-founder of Silver Bullet Therapeutics and associate professor of neurosurgery for Stanford University. “Not one surgical specialty is immune from the prospect of a potential life threatening surgical site infection.”