9/6/25
Airalux Medical, Inc. worked with PA’s Innovation Partnership in 2024 to develop and submit a PhI SBIR proposal to NIH’s National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute (NHLBI) and received an IPart MicroGrant to improve their final proposal submission. Airalux also participated in the University City Science Center’s (UCSC) Life Science-specific, intensive SBIR/STTR training with IPart Preferred Provider BBCetc. The company’s PhI SBIR Award is for $306,872 for the following Project Work.
Airalux Medical, Inc. (Airalux) is a University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) spin-out company started in 2022 by a team of recent Bioengineering graduates. Airalux mission is to improve the standard of respiratory care after surgeries requiring a hospital stay, and we are developing a novel, smart therapeutic, spirometry device for improving lung recovery after inpatient surgeries. To date, the Airalux team has developed a Minimum Viable Prototype (MVP) of their device, secured clinical partners and a pilot study at Penn Med pending IRB review, and completed over 100 customer discovery interviews, validating core business model assumptions.
Project Focus: Therapeutic spirometers are an important standard of postoperative respiratory care. Patients complete breathing exercises with these devices to improve their ventilation and decrease their likelihood of complications like pneumonia. However, these simple, mechanical devices suffer from extremely low adherence, limiting their impact. Airalux improves upon the traditional therapeutic spirometer by integrating modern, digital features (guidance with the screen and speaker, progress tracking, and reminders). While there are other digital spirometers and breathing trainers on the market, Airalux is the only one that supports the therapeutic spirometry exercises that are clinically proven to help patients after surgery. There are around 20MM inpatient surgeries every year in the US, creating a $2B addressable market for Airalux.
Successful completion of their PhI project will enable advancement of their technology to Phase II, when we will conduct a randomized clinical trial with patients using our lower cost prototype and assess clinical outcomes from increased adherence, such as improved oxygenation and reduced complication rates. Commercially, this device seeks to improve patient outcomes after surgery, while also saving hospitals non-reimbursable costs associated with lung complication treatment and readmissions.
Please join us in congratulating the Airalux Medical, Inc. Team on the advancement of their beneficial innovation.
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