Foam to stop internal bleeding receives funding from US Army

Arsenal Medical has been granted a contract of more than £9m ($14m) from the US Army to complete clinical and manufacturing development for its ResQFoamTM

ResQFoam, a biocompatible, self-expanding biomaterial, is designed to be administered at the point of injury to stop massive blood loss in patients with severe internal bleeding within the abdomen due to life-threatening trauma such as automobile crashes, severe falls, explosions, gunshot wounds or stab wounds.

The material fills and conforms to the abdominal cavity to control bleeding before being removed at the time of surgery.

The latest funding for this product comes from U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. Together with previous funding from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Army Research Office, the Department of Defense has provided more than £23m ($35m) in total support to date.

The new funding will pay for the company’s first study in patients — a necessary step if it is to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

David King, an attending trauma surgeon in the division of trauma, emergency surgery and surgical critical care at Massachusetts General Hospital, said: “ResQFoam is designed to be a life-saving intervention that will stabilise a traumatic injury victim with severe internal bleeding, buying valuable time to transport that victim to a qualified trauma center.

“The majority of people with massive abdominal bleeding die before they reach the hospital. Many of these deaths could be prevented if we were able to temporarily stabilse a patient long enough to reach a trauma center.

“ResQFoam could enable first responders to slow internal bleeding in even the most severely injured patients and substantially increase their chance of survival.”

Arsenal, in collaboration with Dr. King, has demonstrated preclinical proof of concept for ResQFoam in a multi-center cadaver study which showed the foam effectively fill the abdominal cavity and conform to human tissue when injected through the navel.

Beyond abdominal bleeding, Arsenal Medical is exploring additional applications for this self-expanding foam system. 

A collaboration with Dr. King and the Massachusetts General Hospital will explore the ability of foam to treat severe pelvic bleeding which currently results in extremely high mortality. 

Arsenal, through subsidiary Arsenal AAA, is also developing a proprietary foam for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms.