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Debiotech and AWAK enter into joint agreement to develop HHD machine
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Debiotech SA, of Switzerland, and AWAK Technologies Pte Ltd., of Singapore, have entered into a partnership agreement to develop and manufacture a small home hemodialysis machine.
The new system will be based on Debiotech's miniaturized home dialysis equipment DialEase, developed for home peritoneal dialysis, and AWAK's sorbent technology for fluid purification. The new machine “shall be extremely small and convenient to use, less intrusive in a patient's life and more cost effective,” the companies said. It will also require much less fluid than conventional hemodialysis machines and will be monitored in real time from a hospital via the cloud.
"This collaboration agreement is based on the ideal synergy between the innovative fluid purification system developed by AWAK and our existing home dialysis machine, DialEase," says Dr. Frédéric Neftel, president and CEO of Debiotech. "Our common vision is to make available to patients, in a relative short period of time, the most integrated and cost-effective machine for home hemodialysis. By using our DialEase system, we will be able to bring optimal comfort, safety and independence to patients preferring to benefit from hemodialysis treatment at home. By using the sorbent fluid purification cartridge from AWAK, we will be able to save a significant amount of fluid, simplify the entire logistics and radically reduce the size of the final system, contributing also to overall cost savings.”
The present DialEase device can easily stand on a night table and weighs about 4.7 kg, making it easily transportable and less intrusive into the patient's home, the companies said. It is also equipped with a "Telecare" real time communication interface between patient and the medical staff.
AWAK Technologies is working on the Automated Wearable Artificial Kidney using peritoneal-based dialysis sorbent technology to address end-stage renal disease. AWAK hopes to have its CE and FDA certification in 2015 and 2016 respectively, for the AWAK PD. The AWAK Technology's sorbent purification cartridge requires about four liters of water to regenerate and reconstitute spent dialysate into fresh dialysate.
Debiotech has specialized, for more than 20 years, in the research and development of innovative medical devices in the field of implantable and external drug delivery systems for the treatment of severe diseases such as diabetes, renal failure, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The company's products are based on micromechanics and nanotechnologies as well as novel technologies. Debiotech has numerous exclusive license agreements with leading companies in the medical device and pharmaceutical fields and holds over 500 patents worldwide.