Pandemic Preparedness

Asep Inc. supports World Sepsis Day (September 13th) and announces the development of a test kit to identify severe sepsis, the leading cause of death and morbidity in pandemics

VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Asep Medical Holdings Inc. ("Asep Inc." or the "Company") (CSE: ASEP) (OTCQB: SEPSF) is pleased to support World Sepsis Day by uniting in the fight against sepsis. World Sepsis Day is an initiative by the Global Sepsis Alliance, a non-profit charity organization with a mission to provide global leadership to reduce the worldwide burden of sepsis. 

Asep Medical Holdings Inc., a Canadian company, is leading the fight globally against sepsis through its research and development activities and is proud to be a part of the solution. The Company's technology has been tested in hundreds of patients and is in advanced commercial development and will provide an invaluable tool for emergency-room medical professionals to assist them to identify patients who will acquire severe sepsis. In spite of increased awareness of sepsis, due in part to great initiatives such as World Sepsis Day, sepsis remains difficult for physicians to diagnose as patients often present to hospital emergency rooms (ERs) with non-specific and widely divergent symptoms. However, it is crucial to identify sepsis early and initiate treatment in order to improve patient outcomes and prevent the most serious complications of this grave medical condition.

Asep Inc. is pleased to make a $1,000 donation to the Global Sepsis Alliance as well as help to raise awareness of this terrible disease. Asep Inc. also participates in the Canadian Sepsis Foundation and contributes to the BC Action Sepsis Network. At least 11,000,000 people worldwide die from Sepsis every year (nearly 20% of all deaths) and sepsis also has been the cause of most deaths in the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, Sepsis figures in the high mortality of most pandemics, including the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, the 2002 SARS pandemic, the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic and the current monkeypox global health emergency. Pandemics cause not only a huge personal, societal and medical toll, but are very costly to society. Thus, in addition to pandemic disease-specific treatments, vaccines and diagnostics, society must develop early-stage diagnostics and sepsis-specific therapeutics.

Sepsis is defined as due to the body's aberrant and dysfunctional response to infection. Unfortunately, current diagnostic methods are largely focused on pathogen identification, and these can take upwards of 24-48 hours to return a result, and oftentimes the pathogen remains elusive to detection. Further, these diagnostic tests do not report on the underlying immune dysfunction that is driving sepsis condition and fail to capture those patients who are most susceptible to serious complications such as organ failure and possible death. Current tests that attempt to address these concerns show low accuracy, especially in the ER, where a correct diagnosis is most important. Asep Inc., through its Sepset^ER test that directly measures this immune dysfunction, is developing its qPCR based-assay using commonly available hospital diagnostic lab equipment to accurately predict if a patient will go on to severe sepsis and organ failure — or not. The second test in advanced development separates patients into subgroups according to the types of underlying immune dysfunction and will enable targeted therapies to correct this dysfunction.

CEO and Chairman of Asep Inc., Dr. Robert E. W. Hancock, said, "We are very pleased to support World Sepsis Day. Our technology is able to address not only a pressing need in this common and deadly disease but will enable new approaches to future pandemics, whereby those patients with the most serious disease can be recognized quickly, enabling countermeasures to control and/or block the onset of sepsis."

ABOUT ASEP MEDICAL HOLDINGS INC.
Asep Medical Inc. (https://asepmedical.com/) is dedicated to addressing antibiotic failure by developing novel solutions for significant unmet medical needs. The Company is a consolidation of two existing private companies (Sepset Biosciences Inc. and ABT Innovations Inc.) that are both in the advanced development of both proprietary diagnostic tools, enabling the early and timely identification of severe sepsis as well as broad-spectrum therapeutic agents to address multidrug-resistant biofilm infections.

Sepset Biosciences Inc. (www.sepset.ca) is developing a diagnostic technology that involves a patient gene expression signature that predicts severe sepsis, one of the significant diseases leading to antibiotic failure since antibiotics are the primary treatment for sepsis. Despite this, sepsis is responsible for nearly 20% of all deaths on the planet. The Sepset^ER test is a blood-based gene expression assay that is straightforward to implement, and results are obtained in about an hour in the emergency room or intensive care unit. This proprietary diagnostic technology differs from current diagnostic tests in enabling diagnosis of severe sepsis within 1-2 hours of first clinical presentation (i.e., in the emergency room), while other diagnostics only provide diagnosis after 24-36 hours. Asep Inc. believes this will enable critical early decisions to be made by physicians regarding appropriate therapies and reduce overall morbidity and mortality due to sepsis.

ABT Innovations Inc.'s peptide technology covers a broad range of therapeutic applications, including bacterial biofilm infections (medical device infections, chronic infections, lung, bladder, wound, dental, skin, ear-nose and throat, sinusitis, orthopaedic, etc.), anti-inflammatories, anti-infective immune-modulators and vaccine adjuvants.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS —
This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of such statements under applicable securities law. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "anticipates", "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed", "positioned" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements, including but not limited to the completion of successful clinical testing of our Sepsis diagnostic test and its intended filing for regulatory approval; and the undertaking of pre-clinical studies on our lead therapeutic, with the expectation that this will lead to fast track clinical trials. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the predictions contained in the forward-looking statements throughout this news release. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks (including those risk factors identified in the Asep Medical Inc.'s prospectus dated November 9, 2021) available for review under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Asep Medical Inc. is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.

SOURCE ASEP Medical Holdings Inc.