We can’t all be a Jonas Salk, pioneering new treatments in medicine to change the course of the modern world. But investors can certainly still make their voices heard through the ages, backing historic innovations that could help shape the course of medicine for decades to come.

Of course, being able to distinguish the groundbreaking from the mundane is no simple task either. But when you look into developments from companies like Covira Surgical , it’s easy to see why so many might be bullish about the long-term prospects of its potentially life-changing research.

The company is leading the charge in changing a rapidly growing problem in hospitals everywhere: the escalating number of postoperative infection cases and their debilitating effects. Today, as many as 4 percent of all surgical patients will develop a surgical site infection (SSI), a group covering almost 300,000 cases a year in the U.S. alone. Once an infection sets in on a surgical patient, it can drastically change their recovery process. That includes about an extra 10 days in the hospital, a 5 times greater chance of being readmitted after discharge, and adding to the $34 billion tab that post-op infections lay across the entire U.S. healthcare industry.

Those cases have also been Dr. John Alverdy’s life work. For more than 30 years, the surgeon and world authority on post-op infections has studied this alarming phenomenon. All that knowledge and research by Covira’s founder and chief science officer has now helped yield a new approach to fighting invasive bacteria cases with the development of Pi-PEG.

The medication is a colorless, tasteless formula that can be given to patients both before and after surgery. Unlike the effects of antibiotics, Pi-PEG takes a more holistic path to stop the spread of dangerous pathogens that can help infections grow to life-threatening proportions.

Rather than eradicating bacteria as antibiotics do, Pi-PEG helps stimulate the natural production of phosphate in the patient’s body, which works to calm and contain bacteria while slowing its growth exponentially. While those pathogens grow and reproduce normally yet remain harmless, the drink also promotes the user’s intestinal microbiome , creating a more robust environment for the body’s own natural abilities to thrive and stave off infection while healing from the effects of surgery on its own.

Now in the process of earning the chance to undergo human trials, Pi-PEG has already earned over 200 positive peer reviews and is projected to help Covira generate $2.2 billion in revenue by 2037 .

With those types of numbers attached, Covira Surgical is hopeful about its new StartEngine effort to help crowdfund additional investor interest in the firm and its marquee product. For as little as $250, people can consider joining over 240 other investors who backed Covira’s efforts to the tune of more than $330,000.

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