Singapore startup’s ‘portable kidney’ can give patients their freedom back

This article is co-written by Coco Feng.

For the past seven years, 70-year-old Singaporean Julia Lee has rarely traveled overseas. Her most recent trip was one night away, in neighboring Malaysia.

Since being diagnosed with kidney disease, Lee has spent 10 hours each day hooked up to a 20-kilogram machine, making it difficult to move around.

Photo credit: Pramote Polyamate / 123RF

Chronic renal disease results in a loss of kidney function, meaning the patient’s body is unable to clear the blood of waste and excess fluids. Dialysis, the treatment Lee goes through which involves machines removing excess water and toxins from the patient’s blood, is the only option for those whose kidneys are no longer able to perform their function, save for a kidney transplant. Some like Lee, whose heart problems make her unsuitable for a transplant, have to rely on the treatment permanently.

“If there was a portable device that could be carried around and used at home, it would be more convenient for me,” Lee said. “Maybe I would be able to travel more.”

But a Singaporean company is offering new hope with its work on a portable artificial kidney weighing just 2 to 3 kilograms, as advances in technology begin to drive more human and machine interaction in health care.

Founded in 2007, AWAK Technologies is among a group of startups worldwide, including Sweden’s Triomed, US firm Wearable Artificial Organs, and Dutch startup Nanodialys, that are looking into ways to make wearable dialysis machines.

AWAK is the only one from Asia, and it has made some headway in gaining recognition from both regulators and investors.

A year ago, its portable artificial kidney was granted “Breakthrough Device Designation” by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a qualification that could expedite the development and review of certain medical products.

The startup also recently raised US$40 million in a series A1 fundraising round co-led by Vickers Venture Partners and an unnamed global medical product company. Other investors include medical technology manufacturer Advanced MedTech and the investment arm of government agency Enterprise Singapore, Seeds Capital.

The artificial kidney, worn externally, consists of a permanent pump and a disposable cartridge that acts as an advanced filter to clear toxins from the body.

Like the machine Lee uses, AWAK’s device carries out peritoneal dialysis (PD), one of two main types of dialysis. PD involves a solution being injected into the abdominal cavity to absorb waste products and toxins before being removed. The other main type of dialysis, haemodialysis (HD), involves extracting the patient’s blood, cleaning it, and then returning it to the body.

Despite its smaller size compared to regular PD machines, AWAK’s device can be used for seven to 10 hours a day. It only holds 250 millimeters of fluid but the cartridge can clean the toxin-laden fluid after it is extracted from the patient’s body and push it back repeatedly, processing about 2 liters of the solution each hour.