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We develop artificial kidney technologies and miniature blood purification devices for millions of patients with kidney failure around the world.
About
We have two series of wearable/portable devices in our pipeline: The first set of devices “assist” patients with issues associated with their dialysis treatment. For example, Qidni/W device removes excess water from dialysis patients to avoid the common fluid overload issue as a supplement to their dialysis plan. The second set of devices completely replace in-center dialysis with technologies that can be used out of clinics and hospitals and even in areas where existing dialysis is not accessible. Qidni/D, which is a miniature and dual-use device that can be used as both “a portable machine at home” and “a wearable device that allows the patient to be mobile during blood purification”. It replaces dialysis, provides more frequent therapy, and significantly improves the quality of life for patients with kidney failure who are currently on dialysis. The result is a procedure that achieves a higher survival rate due to frequent therapy with easy access to treatment.
Key Benefits
The result of our product is a procedure that achieves a higher survival rate due to frequent therapy, which has shown to improve mortality rates in literature, easier access to treatment and great improvements to a patient’s quality of life gained through the added mobility our device offers. Qidni/D is different since its blood purification technology doesn't depend on dialysate as much as existing technology. Existing dialysis requires 120 liters of dialysate for one session of dialysis and we reduced that amount by 200 times. Also, the Qidni/D is innovative in its dual functionalities of being both wearable and portable, along with the fact that it can perform nocturnal dialysis, which gives patients a great degree of flexibility over their treatment. The competing devices that also provide wearable dialysis, such as Dr. Victor Gura’s WAK (wearable artificial kidney), are much larger than our proposed design, making it less discrete and more challenging to carry around on a daily basis. Our device would weigh no more than 5lbs and can be hidden under a user’s garments. Devices like our competitors’ also do not have nocturnal, or sometimes even portable capabilities. Regarding the Qidni/W device, current ultrafiltration products like the Aquadex Smartflow for example do not offer wearable compatibility and do not use the same flow rates as the Qidni/W. This gives our line of products a much greater degree of flexibility for patients compared to other options in the market. Patients endure several hardships due to complications and lifestyle restrictions with traditional dialysis, which our product uniquely aims to minimize.
Applications
There are about 750,000 patients with kidney failure in the US. Dialysis is the only treatment option for kidney failure until the patient would find a kidney for transplantation. Dialysis costs $82,000 per patient per year and it is associated with significantly reduced quality of life and a high mortality rate of around 50% in 5 years. Cost of dialysis adds up to the market size of over $50 Billion per year in the US alone. In China, there are 150 million patients with chronic kidney failure which progresses towards end stage renal disease (kidney failure). 2 million patients have kidney failure in China but only 0.5 million of them have access to dialysis. The other 1.5 million patients live in villages and far away from cities and hospitals and do not have access to dialysis.