Dräger recently announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Swiss medtech startup Stimit and its noninvasive tech to stimulate intensive care patients’ respiratory muscles.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the April 1 announcement. Stimit will work with Dräger in the following months to further develop the product and conduct clinical trials.
The spotlight has been on mechanical ventilation over the past year amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the respiratory distress in severe cases of the disease. The respiratory muscles and diaphragm can weaken after just a few days of ventilation. Stimit’s technology helps maintain and build up the diaphragm through electromagnetic field stimulation.
“With Dräger at our side, we will create clinical evidence to establish a novel therapy to serve patients,” Stimit CEO Ronja Müller-Bruhn said in a news release.
Dräger executive Stephan Kruse said Stimit is working on a concept not yet available on the market.
“By acquiring a majority stake, we secure a head start in the development of noninvasive stimulation of respiratory muscles,” Kruse said. “As an expert in ventilation technology, it is of extraordinary interest to us to make ventilation as gentle as possible and to drive forward innovative solutions in this field.”