24th April, 2022 – The company’s new flagship product, Airvault, is a device for removing air bubbles that negates the need for manual intervention by healthcare staff
Gasgon Medical, a Cork-based medtech company, has raised €2.25 million from investors as it looks to bring its flagship AirVault solution to the market.
Airvault is a device for removing air bubbles that eliminates the need for manual intervention by healthcare staff by automatically capturing air bubbles before they become an issue – saving medical professionals time and preventing intravenous (IV) drug exposure.
IV infusion is the most common invasive procedure in healthcare globally, with over 80 per cent of all hospital patients receiving IV medicine as part of their medical treatment. However, problems in IV, such as air bubbles, are among the most challenging and expensive for healthcare.
“The disposable IV infusion market is worth $52 billion alone. Our ambition is to licence our technology to the major distributors in this space,” Vincent Forde, Gasgon’s founder and chief executive, said.
Established in 2018, the company was named the overall winner of the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition 2021.
Gasgon is currently working towards approval for AirVault in both the US and Europe with Forde targetting a commercial launch of the device next year.
The new financing comes on top of a €3 million EU funding award for a consortium that Gasgon is part of. It will be used, in part, to increase headcount ahead of commercialisation.
Furthr VC, the investment arm of Furthr, led the raise. Enterprise Ireland and a number of syndicates attached to angel investment organisation HBAN also participated.
Among other backers are Additio Investment Group and Cliff Emmons, the former vice-president of R&D at Medtronic.
Gasgon is part of Health Innovation Hub Ireland, a government-backed initiative aimed at strengthening collaboration between start-ups and the public health sector, by providing an opportunity to carry out pilot and clinical validation studies in local hospitals.
The company has agreed to trials with a number of hospitals in Spain, Portugal and the US, as well as Ireland, to accelerate development.
