German medtech startup HBOX Therapies raises €2.3m seed funding to accelerate clinical testing for lung treatment

German medtech startup HBOX Therapies raises €2.3m seed funding to accelerate clinical testing for lung treatment

Published: 22-02-2023 13:55:00 | By: Pie Kamau | hits: 3158 | Tags:

Medtech startup HBOX Therapies, the developer of technology that facilitates lung-protective treatment of respiratory patients, received a seed investment of €2.3 million led by TechVision Fund (TVF). Co-investors are High-Tech Gruenderfonds and business angel Prof. Dr. Peter Borges. 

Bernhard Kugel, MD, TVF Management: "Prospectively, this technology not only protects patients from the many secondary damages of invasive ventilation, it can also relieve the healthcare system by reducing prolonged periods of disease and even deaths. Demographic changes, an increase in respiratory pathogens and higher levels of air pollution will lead to more and more people struggling with lung diseases. We have been following the development of HBOX Therapies for several years and see tremendous potential for a 'break-through technology' that will be applicable to other areas of use."

The spin-off from RWTH Aachen University was founded in 2021 and is backed by an experienced management team that has been working together since 2013. The winners of the "StageTwo Deep Tech Award 2022" want to use the fresh capital to develop a prototype and thus take a big step towards clinical testing. This is a prerequisite for CE certification in order to make the technology available to patients with lung failure as quickly as possible.

The established treatment method of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) often leads to additional lung damage, pneumonia or diaphragmatic dysfunction - especially in lung failure patients. In addition, patients often have to be weaned off IMV again over a period of weeks. Until now, the last treatment option has been ECMO - an artificial lung that requires large cannulas and high blood flow rates, which is very burdensome for patients.

For a less invasive treatment option, the Aachen researchers developed the patented platform technology HBOX (Hyperbaric Blood Oxygenation): As in conventional ECMO therapies, oxygen is administered directly into the blood, thereby relieving the lungs. What makes HBOX unique is the fact that the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen requires much smaller volumes of blood due to the increased pressure level. This makes the treatment less invasive and allows patients to be awake and breathing spontaneously during treatment. Additionally, the HBOX technology can be combined with established non-invasive or invasive mechanical ventilation (NIV or IMV) and used earlier than current ECMO procedures.

Peter Schlanstein, Co-founder, HBOX Therapies: "Our process offers many advantages over existing methods. It ensures that physicians do not have to switch to invasive ventilation at all, or at a later time. This potentially reduces the patient’s length of stay, weaning time and risk of death."

The management team of HBOX Therapies consists of the founders and shareholders Dr. Peter Schlanstein, Dr. Matthias Menne and Niklas Steuer. Before founding the company, they worked together for many years at the Institute for Applied Medical Technology (AME) at RWTH Aachen University and are highly specialized in their fields.

www.hbox-therapies.com