WOODINVILLE, Wash., May 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Briotech Inc. is proud to announce that it has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement for the mortuary market with The Dodge Company, Billerica, MA to distribute their Briotech HOCL, disinfection product BrioHOCL™ PrP.
Briotech’s CEO, Dan Terry noted, “Partnering with a company of Dodge’s reputation builds on Briotech’s strategy to scale our innovative products through strategic distribution partnerships worldwide that provide immediate access to large addressable markets. We are proud to add our BrioHOCL™ PrP Formula (Hypochlorous Acid for Prions) to Dodge’s highly-recognized family of brands that have been at the forefront of technological innovation.”
Timothy Collison, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Dodge added, “Prion diseases such as CJD have long been an issue of concern for funeral service and embalmers. BrioHOCL™ PrP Formula is a welcome addition to the line of products Dodge offers to keep embalmers safe.”
Briotech announced in September, 2016 a study published in PLOS Pathogens that proves Briotech’s unique formulation of pure hypochlorous acid (HOCl) inactivates infectious proteins, known as prions that cause chronic brain diseases in humans and animals.
Investigators at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID/NIH-RML) Rocky Mountain Laboratories, made the discovery in collaboration with researchers at the University of Washington (UW) Bothell, UW Seattle, the University of Verona (Italy), and Briotech Inc. Their findings demonstrate that Briotech’s patent-pending solution (BrioHOCLTM) quickly and safely destroys prions, the most resistant infectious agents known to medical science.
“We’ve been able to synthesize the identical substance in pure form that the body creates to defend itself as a new weapon in the fight against infectious disease, and it’s a game changer for human health,” said Dan Terry, founder, and CEO of Briotech. “With broad adoption of BrioHOCLTM, we can help stop the spread of many infectious diseases, even those caused by the most highly resistant agents ever discovered prions and use the product to save lives and improve the health of entire communities around the world. We’re excited to have this research published in PLOS Pathogens, and look forward to our continued collaboration with the NIH on the effects of BrioHOCL™ on emerging infectious pathogens that threaten global health and safety.”
Destroying Prions
Prions are abnormal, misfolded body proteins that go out of control and begin to multiply themselves, spreading throughout the body and invading the brain. Prions are most commonly transmitted orally, but can also contaminate medical and surgical instruments, transplanted tissues, and equipment used in food processing. A new, fast, convenient and safe method that could have an important place for medical instruments, surfaces, and tissues—by simple immersion in an aqueous solution of BrioHOCL™ PrP Formula can overcome a critically important deficiency in infection control today.
Prion diseases are most widely known as the cause of Mad Cow Disease (BSE). Prions also cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans, a fatal dementia with a long incubation period. Recently, research has shown that most other chronic degenerative diseases that lead to dementia, including Alzheimer’s, result from prions. Currently untreatable, and inevitably fatal, controversy swirls around their possible transmissibility as referenced in Nature: (http://www.nature.com/news/the-red-hot-debate-about-transmissible-alzheimer-s-1.19554)
Prions are uniquely resistant to the disinfection and sterilization procedures in common use in healthcare practice today. Extreme measures are needed. Current prion decontamination protocols are hazardous to people, damaging to instruments and surfaces, and therefore impractical for transmission control.
“Briotech has developed an enabling technology, one that offers for the first time a practical and safe way of destroying infectious prions, the disease agents at the very top of the food chain when it comes to resistance to disinfection measures,” said Jeff Williams, Ph.D., B.V.Sc., Chief Science Officer at Briotech Inc. “We believe we’ve just exposed the tip of the iceberg when it comes to revealing the full potential of Briotech’s pure HOCl in controlling and preventing many transmissible diseases. That’s so important today when rampant antibiotic resistance is challenging established approaches to infectious disease management all over the world. The discovery reported in PLOS Pathogens has opened new avenues for researchers to explore in understanding the relationship between the HOCl made in the brain, its possible involvement in prion inactivation there, and the disease processes that lead to dementia. Understanding those processes is one of the most urgent priorities facing biomedical science at this time.”
How it Works
BrioHOCLTM is easy to handle, safe for both users and treated surfaces and is environmentally safe. Briotech’s pure HOCl, used in the PLOS Pathogens report, is reliably stable in its formulation and powerfully effective against a wide range of conventional microbial disease agents. The solution can be applied directly to skin and mucous membranes, hard surfaces, instruments, or safely aerosolized to decontaminate entire rooms.
About the Research Study
The research study titled Inactivation of Prions and Amyloid seeds with Hypochlorous Acid, appears in the current issue of PLOS Pathogens here:
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1005914.
BrioHOCLTM treatment led to a high level of inactivation after short exposure times for transmissible prions of CJD, BSE, and Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), but also for self-replicating proteins found in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other dementias. Infectivity of BrioHOCLTM-treated scrapie prions in mice was also highly significantly reduced.
About Briotech, Inc.
Briotech is a disruptive therapeutic and disinfection technology start-up based in the Seattle area, that manufacturers the first Hypochlorous Acid (HOCl) product with purity and long term stability without buffers for use in a wide variety of applications globally.
About Dodge
Dodge is the world’s largest manufacturer and supplier of embalming chemicals, instruments, supplies and more.
Related Links
www.dodgeco.com
www.briotechusa.com