Silicosis

WEDNESDAY, July 26, 2023 -- Workers making the most popular type of countertop sold in the United States are at risk for potentially deadly lung disease, a new study finds. The risk owes to the tiny particles of dust produced while cutting, shaping and polishing the synthetic quartz. Inhaling the dust causes the same lung damage, called silicosis, seen for centuries in miners and cutters of natural stone. Engineered stone, however, is more dangerous because of its high concentration of silica, found in sandstone, and the polymer resins and dyes added to the synthetic quartz, according to researchers. "Increasing case counts of silicosis among stone fabricators over the last 10 years and accelerated progression of disease transforms the paradigm of an all-but-previously-forgotten disease in the U.S.," said lead researcher Dr. Jane Fazio , a pulmonary specialist with UCLA Health in Los Angeles. The study shows severe illness and premature death among a "particularly vulnerable group of young underinsured and likely undocumented Latino immigrant workers," she said. The risk was first identified in Israel in 2012. The first U.S. case was identified in Texas, and California is now epicenter of the disease. For the study, Fazio's team identified 52 engineered-stone workers with silicosis in California, 51 of whom were Hispanic immigrants. Leobardo Segura-Meza, now 27, has been a stone worker for 10 years. Despite taking health precautions by wearing a mask and using dust-reducing tools, he went to the emergency room with shortness of breath in February 2022 and was diagnosed with silicosis. He has been on an oxygen tank since and can no longer support his wife and three young children, researchers said. Segura-Meza has been approved for a lung transplant, but fears he will die before that happens. Two other stone workers died while on the waiting list. "Every day I hope that the phone rings telling me to come to the hospital to get my new lungs," Segura-Meza said in a University of California, San Francisco news release. "Our paper raises the alarm," researcher Dr. Sheiphali Gandhi , a UCSF pulmonologist, said in the release. "If we don't stop it now, we're going to have hundreds if not thousands of more cases. Even if we stopped it now, we're going to be seeing these cases for the next decade because it takes years to develop." The findings were published July 24 in JAMA Internal Medicine . Sources University of California, San Francisco, news release, July 24, 2023 Posted July 2023

Workers making artificial-stone slabs for the most popular type of countertops sold in the United States are developing a potentially deadly, irreversible lung disease from tiny particles of toxic dust, researchers found. Workers making artificial-stone slabs for the most popular type of countertops sold in the United States are developing a potentially deadly, irreversible lung disease from tiny particles of toxic dust, researchers from UC San Francisco and UCLA found in the largest U.S. study of this emerging health crisis. When the synthetic quartz is cut, ground and polished, lung-damaging dust is released into the air, leading to a disease called silicosis. The disease has plagued miners and cutters of natural stone for centuries, but the engineered stone is far more dangerous due to its high concentration of silica, a natural product in sandstone, and the harmful polymer resins and dyes that are added to the engineered product. This growing occupational hazard has been sickening and claiming the lives of workers, predominantly young Latino men, at an alarming rate since the first U.S. silicosis case due to engineered stone was reported in 2015, according to the study published in the July 24, 2023, edition of JAMA Internal Medicine. "Increasing case counts of silicosis among stone fabricators over the last 10 years and accelerated progression of disease transforms the paradigm of an all-but-previously-forgotten disease in the U.S.," said Jane Fazio, MD, a pulmonary specialist at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center and co-author of the study. "Our study demonstrates severe morbidity and mortality among a particularly vulnerable group of young underinsured and likely undocumented Latino immigrant workers." The human cost of engineered quartz The risk of silicosis from artificial stone was first identified in Israel in 2012. Since the first U.S. case of silicosis linked to engineered stone was identified in Texas in 2015, California has become an epicenter of the disease. Researchers from UCSF and UCLA collaborated with the UCSF California Labor Laboratory and the California Department of Public Health to identify 52 California engineered-stone workers diagnosed with silicosis, 51 of whom were Latino immigrants. Most were diagnosed between 2019 and 2022. Twenty of the patients had advanced disease at diagnosis, and have 10 died. Their median age was 45 years old, with an average work history of 15 years. One of them is Leobardo Segura-Meza, who was born in Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. in 2012. He found employment in Los Angeles as a stone worker 10 years ago, cutting and grinding at the age of 17. Despite taking health precautions by wearing a mask and using dust-reducing tools, Segura-Meza went to the emergency room with shortness of breath in February 2022, and a lung biopsy revealed he had silicosis. The 27-year-old has been on an oxygen tank since then and can no longer financially support his wife and three young children. While Segura-Meza has been approved for a lung transplant, he fears he'll run out of time. Two fellow stone workers died while on the waiting list. "Every day I hope that the phone rings telling me to come to the hospital to get my new lungs," said Segura-Meza, who was hospitalized last month with a collapsed lung. Calling for change to stop killer stone The study's authors called for public health officials, clinicians and policymakers to implement measures to better protect workers from exposure to silica dust, more quickly diagnose the disease and even ban the product. "Our paper raises the alarm," said Sheiphali Gandhi, a UCSF pulmonologist and co-author of the study. "If we don't stop it now, we're going to have hundreds if not thousands of more cases. Even if we stopped it now, we're going to be seeing these cases for the next decade because it takes years to develop." No country has yet banned the product, but Australia has considered it and is developing new regulations to help reduce the risk of silicosis through such requirements as better air monitoring, training and reporting. In California, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is weighing a potential ban, and the state's Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, has begun drafting emergency rules. The study's authors also called for early diagnosis and minimizing further exposure, both of which are challenging due to lack of health care access and the need for workers to support their families. Of the patients in the study, 45% continued working after their diagnosis. Authors: In addition to Fazio and Gandhi, authors include Robert Harrison, MD, MPH, Jennifer Flattery, MPH, Amy Heinzerling, MD MPH, Nader Kamangar, MD, MS, Nawal Afif, DO and Kristin Cummings, MD, MPH. Funding: The study was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (T32HL72752), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (U60OH008468 and U19OH012293) and the NIH's National Cancer Institute (1F32CA265103-01).

Providence, RI, April 20, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ocean Biomedical, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCEA), a biopharma company working to accelerate the development and commercialization of scientifically compelling assets from research universities and medical centers, announced today that its Scientific Co-founder Dr. Jack A. Elias, received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) for his U.S. patent application covering a therapeutic molecule that Ocean Biomedical is working to advance into the clinic for patients suffering from pulmonary fibrosis. Discoveries in recent years by Ocean Biomedical’s Scientific Co-founder, Dr. Jack A. Elias, and his colleagues at Brown University, have revealed a new target and a new pathway for treating pulmonary tissue damage in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). This patent allowance covers pulmonary fibrosis caused by multiple conditions including: idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), genetic pulmonary fibrosis such as Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome (HPS), chemotherapy and radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis, and exposure-induced interstitial lung diseases including asbestosis and silicosis. A Notice of Allowance is issued after the USPTO examines a patent application and determines that the applicant should be granted a patent from the application. Ocean Biomedical anticipates that a patent will be issued by the USPTO from Dr. Elias’ application in the coming months. Ocean Biomedical’s novel approach to treating pulmonary fibrosis – a condition with no disease modifying agents currently available – is focused on inhibiting Chitinase 1 (Chit1) with patented “OCF-203.” Chit1 is also a critical biomarker in Scleroderma-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) and plays a role in bleomycin- and IL-13-induced pulmonary fibrosis. In four pulmonary fibrosis animal models, Ocean Biomedical’s OCF-203 has shown an 85% – 90% reduction in collagen accumulation. The results of this antifibrotic (termed molecule X: SMX) in the bleomycin model can be seen in the diagram below. Results also showed efficacy in the pale-ear mouse model of HPS, including impressive reductions in fibrosis. As a result, efforts are now moving towards IND-enabling studies. Ocean Biomedical’s anti-fibrosis platform seeks to address major unmet needs for IPF and HPS, and has shown potential for expanded application into fibrotic diseases in other organs, such as scleroderma, alcoholic liver disease, NASH, and kidney failure (see below). This unique approach has been developed by a research team led by Dr. Jack A. Elias, who is the former Dean of Medicine and Biology at Brown University, and former Chair of Medicine and Chief of Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine at Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital. IPF is a devastating lung condition that currently affects about 100,000 people per year in the United States, and about 15 per 100,000 people worldwide, with a much higher prevalence in males over 50 years old. The median survival rate ranges from 2 – 5 years. Current standard-of-care therapeutics have limited efficacy and significant side effects such that patients choose to forgo drug therapy. There are no therapies currently available that can reverse loss of lung function. “It is difficult to see the limited treatment options that are currently available for patients with pulmonary fibrosis conditions. We are working to change that, and we’re excited about the broad therapeutic potential for this unique treatment pathway,” commented Dr. Elias. “We are confident in the results being generated in our anti-fibrosis platform, and we are proud to be moving them forward, especially with the potential application for these pulmonary fibrotic conditions that do not currently have effective treatment options,” said Elizabeth Ng, CEO of Ocean Biomedical. Suren Ajjarapu, a director of Ocean, commented, “The range of pulmonary fibrosis conditions that can be impacted by this patent allowance is impressive and has potential to generate positive returns for our shareholders in multiple ways.” “This company was founded by physician-researchers to find solutions for large, unmet medical needs and we are pleased with the possibility of extending the anti-fibrosis platform into a broad range of hard-to-treat conditions,” said Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, Ocean’s co-founder and Executive Chairman. About Ocean Biomedical Ocean Biomedical, Inc. (“Ocean Biomedical” or the “Company”) is a Providence, Rhode Island-based biopharma company with an innovative business model that accelerates the development and commercialization of scientifically compelling assets from research universities and medical centers. Ocean Biomedical deploys the funding and expertise to move new therapeutic candidates efficiently from the laboratory to the clinic, to the world. Ocean Biomedical is currently developing five promising discoveries that have the potential to achieve life-changing outcomes in lung cancer, brain cancer, pulmonary fibrosis, and the prevention and treatment of malaria. The Ocean Biomedical team is working on solving some of the world’s toughest problems, for the people who need it most. To learn more, visit . 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The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties that are described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and which are described in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s definitive proxy statement filed by the Company on January 12, 2023, and other documents to be filed by the Company from time to time with the SEC and which are and will be available at . These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this filing. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements. Ocean Biomedical Investor Relations OCEANIR@westwicke.com Ocean Biomedical Media Relations OCEANPR@westwicke.com Kevin Kertscher Communications Director