Worldwide, 10% of the global population suffers from Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), at different stages of severity. Monitoring this pathology is not always easy, sometimes patients being unable to travel for their analyses. CardioRenal has been developing solutions to improve the monitoring of patients at home, for almost 10 years
Tenor, which has been in development since 2017, allows people suffering from CKD to carry out analyses at home themselves, using a drop of capillary blood. The device, which is no bigger than a smartphone, then measures the level of potassium in the patient’s blood. “The kidney’s function is to maintain potassium at a precise level. Any variation increases cardiac risks,” said Maurice Berenger, CEO of CardioRenal. The system is painless and the procedure lasts a total of five minutes. The results of the analyses are transferred directly to a website that only the doctor can consult. Using the analyses the doctor can optimise the treatment and provide the patient with a new prescription. To date, Tenor was tested on 70 Belgian patients this summer. This initial clinical test phase has now been validated. Although the remaining test phases are still in progress, the device is expected to go on sale in Europe and North America within a year.
“Doctors are always telling patients with kidney failure to monitor their potassium levels but they have no way of doing it. With our device, they can do their own analysis from home in 5 minutes.” Maurice Berenger, CEO of CardioRenal
With this device the company is seeking to position itself in Europe in the rapidly developing digital therapies market. Maurice Berenger sees this technology as a solution to much broader problems. “In addition to the practical aspect for patients, this presents a solution to the issue of medical deserts in France. The Government is starting to look into the issue of digital therapies and we are entering the market at the right time.”
The next step for the company is to open a subsidiary in the United States, a country that is very advanced in the use of these technologies. Thanks to their participation in the French Healthcare NEXT program, the start-up has been able to establish initial contacts in the United States and can now consider creating a structure.
