Leiden-based RespiQ, a pioneering Dutch healthtech company, secured a €4 million grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC). This substantial funding propels respiQ’s mission to enhance the well-being of COPD patients with their groundbreaking breath diagnostics technology.
The grant is part of the EIC Pathfinder Challenge: “Towards the healthcare continuum”, which is designed to support innovative technologies that facilitate the transition from episodic to continuous patient care across Europe.
Mira Gleisberg, CEO of RespiQ, commented: “Receiving the EIC Pathfinder grant marks a significant milestone for our company and consortium, as it enables us to accelerate the development of our cutting-edge breath diagnostics device, bringing hope to thousands of COPD patients struggling to monitor their disease.”
RespiQ will receive the €4 million grant over the next three and a half years alongside a distinguished international consortium of renowned academic institutions and medical research organisations, which includes King’s Centre for Lung Health, School of Immunology and Microbial Sciences at King’s College London, the National eHealth Living Lab within the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), the Norwegian research organisation Sintef, and the Portuguese technical consulting and research company, uRoboptics.
Professor Mona Bafadhel, Chair of Respiratory Medicine and Director of the King’s Centre for Lung Health at King’s College London, said: “The impact of this funding will be potentially game-changing. Ways to diagnose onset of deterioration in COPD are urgently warranted. With a non-invasive test like a breath test, this could mean that in the future patients living with COPD will be able to safely monitor their condition without the need for a trip to hospital. As the clinical partner for this project, we look forward to the advancements this funding will allow our research to achieve for COPD patients in the future.”
The funding will accelerate the development and miniaturization of RespiQ’s cutting-edge breath diagnostics technology, enhancing non-invasive remote patient monitoring. The company’s mission is to enhance the well-being of COPD patients by building a sensor device for real-time, at-home patient monitoring. The device will offer an early warning system for impending lung attacks, with the potential to transform COPD patient care.
COPD is a prevalent global lung disease affecting nearly 400 million people and ranking as the 3rd leading cause of death worldwide. Worldwide six percent of all deaths are caused by COPD.
Leiden-based healthtech startup respiQ is female led by Mira Gleisberg and Jantine Mens. Mira brings considerable healthcare expertise having worked at Philips and McKinsey. She is a serial entrepreneur with expertise in strategy, healthcare product development and disease prevention. Jantine has a substantial background in strategic healthcare marketing, having led multiple patient-centric medical device launches at Becton Dickinson, Bayer and GSK.
RespiQ originated during a founder residency in Amsterdam run by Antler in 2019. During the residency, tech inventor Vitalii Vorkov and Mira Gleisberg developed the strategic concept for their breath diagnostics technology and started to build RespiQ.
RJ Schuurs, Partner at Antler, added: “We are delighted to have supported RespiQ from day zero of their growth journey and this prestigious funding grant is testament to their long-term growth potential. This is an outstanding founding team building a technology that could improve the lives of thousands of people around the world. We are very excited to see what RespiQ and their consortium partners can deliver in the coming years.”
