Research and Development of optimal dosing and formulation of PM-208 for AF field use

Up to 90% of battlefield fatalities are due to hemorrhagic shock– a type of shock caused by heavy blood loss leading to inadequate blood flow to the body’s tissues, ultimately leading to tissue death due to lack of oxygen in the cells.  With the real possibility that the United States could be at war in the next two years, the Military Health System (MHS) is preparing for the next conflict: "We're worried about future casualties because those distances [to hospitals] are so great," said Air Force Col Stacy Shackelford, former Chief of the Joint Trauma System. The current standards of care for hemorrhagic shock (intravenous infusion of normal saline or whole blood) is falling flat as prehospital mortality remains high as neither address the underlying vascular constriction limiting blood supply to critical organ issues, and whole blood product is a scarce resource in battlefield medicine.  Lack of treatment options has prompted tactical combat casualty care (TCCC) groups across the Air Force to research “far-forward blood, blood components, and blood substitutes… that are portable and shelf stable.”  A novel intravenous solution, PEG-20k/8k, by Perfusion Medical stands to fill this battlefield treatment gap by providing critical and life-saving pre-hospital, shelf-stable treatments to be used for hemorrhagic shock in the field. With development at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) funded by over $12M from the U.S. Army, PEG-20k/8k has already been de-risked in 12 published animal trials, and demonstrated safety and efficacy in animal models to improve survival to up to 24 hours. Once FDA approved, this PEG-20k/8k product will be the first drug to specifically address the vascular constriction causing rapid tissue death in hemorrhagic shock. Now, Perfusion Medical is partnering with vascular surgeon, Dr. Todd Rasmussen (Col Ret, USAF), at the Mayo Clinic to further develop PEG-20k/8k to extend military trauma care’s critical “golden hour”-- where definitive medical attention is truly life saving–  into the “golden day” to save lives and limbs in impending near-peer conflicts. ???????