Iasis Molecular Sciences Inc., a Spokane medical devices and life sciences company focused on preventing health care-associated infections, has taken significant steps in developing two products that destroy or inhibit the growth of microorganisms, says Iasis CEO and founder David Vachon. 

The first product will be a Foley catheter—a device that is used when a person is unable to urinate on their own—and the second is an architectural antimicrobial coating for the built environment. 

Both products are being developed using the company’s intellectual property, broadly dubbed "ionclad" antimicrobials—a powdery additive composed of different materials including silver and copper metals. Because the technology relies on the delivery of silver and copper ions, the trademarked name "Ionclad" is a play on ironclad, Vachon says. 

The Foley catheter will be made using silver ionclad antimicrobials, and the architectural coating will have copper ionclad antimicrobials. 

Iasis has completed its first manufacturing validation of its ionclad antimicrobial, which will be incorporated into the company’s next-generation Foley catheter. Additionally, Iasis has received phase II funding of $1.25 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to take its ionclad copper architectural coatings to be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.  

"These antimicrobial materials, they have a lot of applications," Vachon says. "But we are principally interested and focused in the area of reducing health care-associated infections—that is infections that occur while the patient is in the hospital." 

Iasis’ focus is to prevent the transmission of microbes and viruses to the patient that can live on the surface of their surroundings or can be brought to patients by health care workers. Often, infections result from natural organisms that occur inside a patient while using a medical device such as a Foley catheter. A Foley catheter works by inserting a thin tube in the patient’s bladder through the urethra. The catheter then drains urine into a collection bag that is attached to the patient's leg or on a stand and can remain in place for up to 28 days, putting patients at risk of developing a catheter-associated urinary tract infection. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control, heavy reliance on urinary catheters results in 560,000 catheter-associated urinary tract infections annually in hospitals and extended-care facilities. It is estimated that each year there are more than 13,000 deaths associated with catheter-associated urinary tract infections 

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, microorganisms can colonize on catheters due to contamination during placement, which allows the migration of intestinal microbes to the urinary tract, or the reflux of collected urine into the bladder. If left untreated, urinary tract infections can lead to sepsis, a potentially life-threatening physical response to infection.

The standard treatment for a catheter-related urinary tract infection involves replacing a catheter and administering an antibiotic treatment, but over time, due to the frequent use of antibiotics, this practice can lead to bacterial resistance of antibiotics, a dangerously ongoing phenomenon and a concerning issue in health care settings. 

The Iasis Foley catheter aims to reduce and prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infections. 

Using the same technological platform, Iasis is developing antimicrobial architectural coatings to protect surfaces. The architectural coatings' uses won't be limited to health care settings. They could be used in cruise ships, long-term care facilities, and public spaces like transportation hubs, he says. 

“Generally speaking, bacteria can double in population every 20 minutes, under the right conditions,” Vachon says. “They grow into these communities called biofilms. Our material, whether we are talking about a medical device or architectural coating, prevents these biofilms from forming.” 

Vachon, a medical device and life sciences entrepreneur, founded Iasis—a Greek suffix that loosely means “medical condition”—in 2007. The company’s offices and labs are located at the Washington State University Center for Innovation Building, at 120 N. Pine.

The company has three full-time employees, including Vachon and his brother, Mark Vachon, who is vice president of quality. Vachon says Iasis is now poised for growth and he has started raising capital to expand the company. The company hasn't generated revenue or secured customers yet, but Vachon expects that to change in 2025. 

Initially, Vachon was focused on formulating solutions for wound care, such as the development of an antimicrobial hernia repair mesh and an ointment to care for diabetic infections.  However, the company pivoted in 2016 with the discovery of the ionclad antimicrobial technology. Iasis still has the wound care platform and technology but decided to prioritize the more expansive innovation, Vachon says. 

The ionclad antimicrobials that are being developed to be an integral part of the company’s next-generation Foley catheter follow three manufacturing processes. 

First, Iasis contracted with Richman Chemical Inc., of Lower Gwynedd Township, Pennsylvania, to make the antimicrobial advanced material that can be incorporated or blended to any type of plastic or rubber material, Vachon says. Next, the material is sent to a second manufacturer that specializes in blending materials into silicone rubber. Lastly, the blended ionclad antimicrobial silicone rubber materials will be sent to Spectrum Plastics Group, Inc. which will complete the development of the catheter and oversee the design control testing for the new medical device. 

The Foley catheters then will be ready for a clinical unit, and it will take some time before they go to market, Vachon says. 

Iasis doesn’t have the same restrictions in manufacturing architectural coatings that it faces in making the Foley catheter, Vachon says, meaning Iasis will make the ionclad copper architectural coating in-house, then send it to a paint manufacturer who will formulate a water-based coating that can be used indoors. 

“We ordered some equipment and started to order materials, so we’re ramping up and getting ready,” Vachon says. 

Some ionclad copper material will be sent to a different manufacturer to make powder paints, he says. Powder paints are essentially polymers that contain the ionclad antimicrobial material and are electrostatically applied, typically to metal surface, and baked on.

“We’ve known for a long time that copper surfaces have an antimicrobial character,” Vachon says. “They can kill bacteria, inactivate viruses, and kill fungal organisms or yeast that could become mold.” 

Tests on the water and powder paints show that the architectural coatings, once applied and dried, have been shown to inactivate the COVID-19 virus, influenza, and other viruses. 

To produce the materials, Iasis employs a two-step process. There is some chemistry on the front end to create the ionclad antimicrobials, then a mill is used to reduce the size of the material by a factor of a hundred from a bandlike quality to a powder, he says. 

Iasis owns the intellectual property rights to ionclad antimicrobials, Vachon says. The materials eventually will be sold as a license for other companies to create different medical devices or use them in food packaging. 

“I really think the technology is going to benefit society, people, patients, and that’s a good thing," he says. "I think we can save a lot of lives by implementing it."