Company Founded in Clark School Awarded $500K to Test Hemorrhage-Halting Foam

Remedium Technologies Inc., a medical device company founded by Clark School alumni and faculty developing innovative products to control severe hemorrhaging, was awarded a $500,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation. The award will fund testing of the company’s sprayable foam for rapidly halting bleeding caused by traumatic injuries.

In collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Maryland, Remedium will complete pre-clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Hemogrip™ in controlling non-compressible hemorrhaging, bleeding that cannot be slowed or stopped using direct pressure. Hemogrip is a high-pressure, sprayable foam that can expand into an injured body cavity, adhere to tissue and stop hemorrhaging within minutes during the expansion process. There are currently no hemostatic products available for the treatment of non-compressible bleeds, which account for 85 percent of hemorrhage-related deaths.

The grant will also support additional product research by the Clark School's Complex Fluids and Nanomaterials Group, directed by Remedium co-founder Professor Srinivasa Raghavan (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering).

"Remedium is honored to be recognized for its product development progress with this important Phase II funding from the National Science Foundation,” said Matthew Dowling (Ph.D. ’10), CEO and co-founder of Remedium. “We are enthusiastic in approaching pre-clinical trials with a product we see as critical in addressing one of the biggest unmet needs in trauma medicine today."

Hemogrip's life-saving technology is based on chitosan--a natural biopolymer found in the exoskeleton of shrimp, crabs, and other crustaceans. Chitosan is unique as a natural material because it is biocompatible, anti-microbial, and highly durable under a wide range of environmental conditions. When applied to wounds, Hemogrip creates a nano-scale, three-dimensional mesh, rapidly coagulating blood and staunching blood loss.

The Hemogrip foam is dispensed from a handheld, lightweight canister. It can be removed quickly and easily without damaging tissue, and since it is based on chitosan--the second most abundant biopolymer on earth--it is also inexpensive.

Remedium was previously awarded a $150,000 SBIR Phase I grant from the NSF, two Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) grants totaling $206,000, a $140,000 Maryland Proof of Concept Alliance grant, a $75,000 Maryland Technology Development Corporation Maryland Technology Transfer Fund grant, and a $200,000 Maryland Biotechnology Center Translational Research Award. In 2009, it received the University of Maryland's Outstanding Invention of the Year Award in the Life Sciences division from the Office of Technology and Commercialization.

The young company has been highly successful in business plan competitions, including winning first prize and $25,000 in the Community Resilience and Homeland Security division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's 2010 Global Venture Challenge; the "Most Promising Security Idea" award and $10,000 in the 2009 4^th Annual Global Security Challenge; and 2^nd place and $8000 in the Faculty and Graduate Student Division of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute's 2007 $50K Business Plan Competition. Most recently, Remedium was a finalist and won $5,000 in the Invest Maryland Challenge, a national early-stage business competition offering grants and services to high-tech and life sciences startups located or interested in moving to the State of Maryland.

Remedium has six patents pending related to the Hemogrip platform. Its products, which also include surgical sprays and bandages, are designed to be used by surgeons, soldiers, EMTs, or even unskilled helpers, in locations ranging from the operating room to the battlefield to emergency situations.

Story courtesy of and based on the original by Eric Schurr, Mtech.

For More Information:

Visit the Remedium Technologies Inc. web site »

Read Remedium's press release (PDF) »

Visit the Invest Maryland Challenge web site or watch a video which includes Dowling's overview of Remedium and its products.

See "Finalists named in Maryland's startup contest: Nine firms competing for three prizes of $100,000 each," at the Baltimore Sun web site »

Published April 25, 2013