AsepticSure™ Hospital Sterilization System

Medizone International, Inc. (MZEI.OB) has been developing a portable, inexpensive hospital sterilization system called AsepticSure™.

In hospital mock-up trials conducted at the Company’s laboratories located in Innovation Park at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada under the direction of Dr. Michael E. Shannon, greater than 6 log reductions in bacterial load are now being routinely achieved on all common hospital surfaces, hard and fabric alike.

Of note, successful decontamination by AsepticSure™ translates into a minimum 6 log reduction which can now be reliably achieved with C.difficile, E coli, Pseudomonas aeruginous, MRSA, VRE and Bacillius subtilis.

The AsepticSure™ hospital sterilization system is a portable, affordable, easily operated system that can be used by trained maintenance staff.

It is placed in the center of the room to be cleaned. Vents and doors are then sealed with an easily and cleanly removable 3M-tape product.

The AsepticSure™ equipment is turned on from outside of the room through a remote wireless computer interface.

The room is filled with a unique and patented gas formula that is ozone (O3) based to specific humidity and charge strength. Following the charge period the sterilization process is remotely turned off and a separate technology is employed that restores the atmosphere inside the room to EPA standards.

The entire process, start to finish, takes 80 to 90 minutes at which time the room will have been cleared of pathogens to the 6 log sterilization standard. The room is opened and the equipment is then ready to move on to the next space to be treated, leaving the treated room sterile of pathogens with a fresh, oxygen (O2) freshness.

From an operational perspective, the turnaround time for re-use of rooms up to 4,000 cubic feet in size is 80 to 95 minutes which includes the decontamination of carpets, drapes and medical equipment, all to the 6 log standard.

Medizone is currently preparing for hospital beta testing at sites in both the United States and Canada. Given the performance of its system in large scale mock-up trials, the outcome of the beta testing should be of no surprise.

Accordingly, the AsepticSure™ system is expected to significantly reduce the incidence of nosocomial infections, a number which now exceeds 1.7 million in the US annually (CDC, 2007).

Based on recent CDC cost-estimates, modest predictions of AsepticSure performance would see hospitals saving $6 to $7 for each $1 invested in this technology through reduced costs associated with prolonged admissions, re-admissions, expanded use of antibiotics and expensive ICU care.

In a recent proposal to the US Senate by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (Jan 2009) it was argued that "State and local public health departments are unable to maintain their capacity to adequately address emerging infectious disease threats in community and healthcare settings.

Such settings include tracking and treating specific organisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) which are becoming endemic in many settings; Clostridium difficile infections which are on the rise; and multidrug resistant strains of the so-called “gram negative” types of bacteria for which few treatments exist".

Large room mock-up trials by Medizone's research team at Queen's University has not found a pathogen to date (gram negative or gram positive, anaerobic or aerobic) which does not succumb to the AsepticSure™ decontamination system. This, in essence, equates to ICU or surgical suite sterilization (> 6 log reduction) achieved in 90 minutes or less with no health risk to staff or threat to the environment.

Successful completion of the first phase of AsepticSure™ beta testing at Hotel Dieu Hospital, an ambulatory care teaching and research hospital affiliated with Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada has been completed.

Pre-inoculated stainless steel test discs as well as carpet swatches (typically found in many health care facilities) were placed in selected locations to assess for antimicrobial effects.

Not only were 100% of the MRSA and C. difficile spores eliminated from the stainless steel discs (7.1 logs bacterial kill for MRSA and 6.2 log bacterial kill for C difficile spores), the pathogens were also completely eliminated from all contaminated carpet samples - something unachievable with any other technology we are aware of.

Thus, the system performed to our highest expectations. The AsepticSure™ system has proven to be able to achieve a very high level of microbial kill to the sterilization standard of >6 log (99.9999%) in the laboratory setting and now, in a hospital setting.

Medizone International | 4000 Bridgeway| Suite 401| Sausalito CA 94965
Telephone: 415-331-0303
Investor relations: 414-331-0202
E-mail: operations@medizoneint.com