Perfusion Medical has been awarded a Phase I STTR from the National Institute of Health (NIH). The company believes its PEG20k/8k solution may be the first therapeutic to directly treat lethal complications of sepsis, and as such, support new thinking on the basic mechanisms of the disease. Sepsis or septic syndrome leads to a spectrum of illnesses and occurs at a frequency of 1.7 million people in the US each year and septic shock kills over 270,000 Americans each year. At the end of this study, the company expects to have proof-of-concept data showing that a major determinant of septic shock mortality and organ failure is secondary to severe malperfusion of vital tissues and that early correction with PEG-20k/8k can avert devastating downstream consequences leading to critical illness and death.