OPKO Health has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Inspiro Medical (Inspiro), an Israeli medical device firm.
Inspiro’s Inspiromatic, a ‘smart’ easy-to-use dry powder inhaler with several advantages over existing devices, offers an improved drug deposition to the lower airways of patients and real time data for patient compliance monitoring.
The device is equipped with an internal microcontroller and flow sensor that controls the delivery of the medication.
The device incorporates a micro-pump technology to dispense the drug particles at the right speed without the need for forceful inhalation.
It also provides instant feedback to the patient with a green or red flasher light to indicate proper inhalation and a beeper after the dose has been delivered.
For physicians, Inspiromatic provides a built-in logger that stores patient use data for easy access and transmission by electronic devices such as smart phones.
Inspiromatic demonstrated a superior pulmonary delivery of the active drug in a recently completed the ‘First In Man’ double blinded clinical study conducted in 30 asthmatic children that compared Inspiromatic with a market leading dry powder inhaler.
OPKO CEO and chairman Dr Phillip Frost said the company is pleased to add this next generation inhaler to OPKO’s growing product portfolio.
"We expect this innovative device to play a valuable role in the improvement of therapy for asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis and other respiratory diseases. We plan to use the Inspiromatic device to test the inhaled form of OPKO’s new sulfated disaccharide drug against these disorders," Dr Frost added.
Inspiro CEO and co-founder Nimrod Kaufmann said the company is extremely proud of Inspiro’s success in bringing our smart Inspiromatic respiratory drug-delivery device to market.
"Inspiro joining OPKO is a big win for the shareholders of both Inspiro and OPKO, as well as good news for our patients and physicians," Kaufmann added.