Nephria Bio signs exclusive agreement with Drexel University to license new "MXene" nanomaterial for future dialysis innovations

• Nephria Bio secures a key technology needed to develop wearable dialysis therapies
• Nephria is in close collaboration with EOFlow and Dr. Yury Gogotsi's lab at Drexel University

PORTMOUTH, N.H., April 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 29, Nephria Bio, a privately held US corporation specializing in the development of innovative approaches to dialysis, announced that it signed a license agreement with Drexel University to transfer technology of new MXene nanomaterials.

Through this license agreement, Nephria Bio, Inc. ('Nephria Bio') obtained the exclusive rights to use MXenes, invented and developed by Dr. Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Bach professor in Drexel's College of Engineering who is a world leader in developing and studying MXenes. Nephria Bio plans to develop more efficient cartridges for dialysis centers and wearable dialysis devices with this technology transfer.

Nephria Bio is a privately held US corporation spun out of EOFlow Co., Ltd. ("EOFlow"), a public medical device company based in South Korea, to address current challenges to dialysis treatment for renal patients through innovations aimed at more effective in-center and home-based dialysis treatment, as well as building wearable solutions.

MXenes are inorganic nanomaterials with two-dimensional (2D) properties. MXenes are attracting increasing attention along with graphene as an ideal 2D material. The advantages of MXenes are numerous but include superior biocompatibility, sieving coefficient and higher urea binding affinity, all properties which make them an ideal fit for application to dialysis. Although there has been a lot of research of MXene application in the energy related and other applications, this will be the first time that MXene is applied to dialysis.

Nephria Bio is developing a flexible, wearable, cartridge-based system, termed EOCARRT^TM (EOPump-based Continuous Ambulatory Renal Replacement Therapy), which allows ambulatory dialysis. The system could supplement/bridge traditional dialysis therapy and, ultimately, supplant it, depending upon device performance and therapeutic needs.

Once more efficient cartridges and wearable dialysis therapies are developed, high demand in the market is expected. Global dialysis market reached $90.3 billion in 2019, and is estimated to reach $177.6 billion by 2027, with the increase projected to be due in large measure to increases in the number of hypertensive and diabetic patients ultimately requiring dialysis. On the other hand, there are no such products as wearable artificial kidneys commercially available yet.

Nephria Bio is working closely with Dr. Yury Gogotsi's laboratory to optimize the MXene formulation. The company is also in close collaboration with its founding company, EOFlow, to adapt the electroosmotic pump (EOP) platform developed initially for wearable drug delivery applications to wearable dialysis therapy.

In developing the EOCARRT, technologies which are essential to developing an effective wearable dialysis solution have been brought together; a small, lightweight pumping technology with low power consumption, and a high efficiency filter technology, enabling reuse and recycling of dialysate.

"Two technologies are essential to develop wearable artificial kidneys; One is a small, light actuator with low power consumption, and the other is an efficient material for urea filtration. Nephria Bio secured them both- the proprietary electroosmotic pump technology from EOFlow, and the filter technology from Drexel University," Jesse Kim, founding CEO of Nephria Bio said.

"With the unique combination of these enabling technologies, Nephria Bio feels that it can substantially enhance dialysis therapy for kidney patients."

"Our fundamental study of titanium carbide MXene, supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, showed that MXene is biocompatible, able of adsorbing a variety of small molecules, and holds a lot of promise in medical applications, so it is exciting to see it applied for improving and really changing dialysis — an area of need in health care that can help millions of people," Gogotsi said.

"This work could give hundreds of thousands of people with kidney disease the ability to live life more freely and fully," said Meera Harhay, MD, an associate professor of Medicine in Drexel's College of Medicine, who has been working with Gogotsi to study MXene's application in dialysis. "A wearable artificial kidney would allow people suffering from kidney disease to more easily work and travel and maintain a more active lifestyle, which has been associated with positive health outcomes."

SOURCE Nephria Bio, Inc.