ABM raises $10 million for remote ventilators
ABM Respiratory Care, a Singaporean medical device company, has raised US$10 million in a Series A funding round from Advanced MedTech Holdings and SEEDS Capital. The funds raised will accelerate the global commercialisation of the Alpha, which ABM claims is the world’s first telehealth ventilator.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a shortage of ventilators. In addition, frequent bedside visits by healthcare professionals to adjust and monitor ventilators increase the possibility of infection.
The Alpha ventilator seeks to address these issues. It controls or assists breathing for patients, and enables caregivers to monitor, manage and adjust its settings remotely and in real time over an encrypted connection. Ventilator operations centres can be set up to allow a small team of healthcare professionals to care for a large number of ventilated patients through an online portal, reducing the number of bedside visits.
The Singapore Health Sciences Authority has granted provisional authorisation for the use of the Alpha as an emergency ventilator, and ABM is also filing with the US FDA for emergency use authorisation.
Advanced MedTech, one of the investors, is a major Singaporean medical device company and makes strategic investments in disruptive medical technologies. The company has set up a dedicated manufacturing facility with its wholly-owned subsidiary AMT, a contract manufacturer, to build, test and distribute ABM ventilators and other novel respiratory care devices. The facility has been in operation since June 2020 and will distribute the Alpha in South East Asia.
Abel Ang, Group Chief Executive of Advanced MedTech, said: “Access to ventilators continues to be one of the key limiting factors in the global fight against COVID-19. We look forward to collaborating with medical device disrupters like ABM to save lives around the world, while strengthening Singapore’s access to critical, novel and life sustaining technologies.”
Ted Tan, Chairman of SEEDS Capital and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Singapore, added: “ABM’s telehealth ventilator has the potential to improve productivity and, more importantly, reduce infection rates among frontline workers and caregivers, strengthening resilience against COVID-19.”
ABM was founded by Chad Boerst, who worked in the Respiratory Care division at Hill-Rom. The company has offices in Singapore, India and the US.