Celacade

Celacade, also called Immune Modulation Therapy, was a device-based, non-drug treatment developed by the Canadian company Vasogen for chronic heart failure and peripheral artery disease. A sample of the patient's blood was drawn and piped through a device that exposed it simultaneously to heat, ultraviolet light, and ozone, inducing a controlled level of oxidative stress intended to trigger an anti-inflammatory immune response when the treated blood was reinjected. In the ACCLAIM trial, roughly 2,408 patients with severely reduced heart function were studied across seven countries; the therapy did not produce a significant overall clinical benefit, but a subgroup of patients with a prior cardiovascular event showed about a 39 percent lower risk of death or hospitalization from a cardiac or cerebrovascular event, along with improved quality of life. On the strength of that subgroup finding, Vasogen partnered with Grupo Ferrer Internacional to win regulatory approval to market Celacade as a medical device for chronic heart failure in the European Union and Latin America, even though it underperformed in the broader trial population.