Challenge
Preterm infants rank at the top of the list of most vulnerable patients. A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) treats infants that scarcely weigh more than 1lb. Intravenous therapy is essential to the care these patient receive. Challenges in providing this specific care include highly concentrated drug dosages related to small therapeutic bandwidths of medication, restrictions in volume transfer and limited intra venous access points. Common practice in NICU care describes simultaneous infusion of multiple drugs through a single IV set. However, an estimated 10-15% of brain damage in preterm children originates from inaccurate or delayed drug administration, which occur because current IV- systems are unable to properly regulate pressure, impeding the treatment of these preemies.
Opportunity
Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death among children under 5, responsible for approximately 1 million deaths in 2015. The annual societal economic burden associated with preterm birth is at least $40 billion in the U.S. alone. With the expected uptake in number of NICU admissions, the total market need for preterm IV-sets is expected to grow rapidly.
Solution
Innofuse has developed a disposable IV-set (Tulive®) for stable and immediate drug administration, dedicated for Neonatal Intensive Care. It is compatible with all currently used IV-systems, and it can be implemented without changing the standard way of working. The Tulive IV-set guarantees 100% elimination of overshoot, as well as reducing fluctuations following flow rate adjustments with 70%. Moreover, start-up time is reduced from 118 to 30 minutes. As a result of this, Innofuse can prevent brain damage caused by inaccurate or delayed drug administration.
Status
A Proof of Concept (PoC) has been developed, and in-vitro performance of the Tulive® prototype has been assessed and validated. The improvements in stability and immediacy of fluid administration have been measured and documented. A R&D MIT grant has been awarded. A technology partnership with Promolding in The Hague, has been established.
Meet the team
Brechje Riphagen
Inventor
Roland Zegger
Venture Partner at NLC
Roland joined NLC in March 2015. He is a trained pharmacist, has worked in several pharmaceutical companies, and has broad experience in marketing and sales functions as well as general management. As Venture Partner, Roland focuses on building innovative companies and strengthening NLC’s abilities to bring innovations to healthcare.