BOSTON, May 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Third Pole Inc., a company developing next generation life-saving cardiopulmonary therapies, today announced that it has won Johnson & Johnson Innovation's JLABS @ M2D2 QuickFire Challenge. The JLABS @ M2D2 QuickFire Challenge awards one year of paid residence at the University of Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) in Lowell, Massachusetts and access to mentorship and coaching from Johnson & Johnson Innovation experts to the best medical device idea, technology, or solution that will address a critical health need for the world's population. Third Pole's first product is capable of creating an unlimited supply of pure nitric oxide (NO) on-demand from air, providing patients with access to life- saving therapy without requiring compressed gas cylinders.

NO is a gas produced by the body to relax the smooth muscle around blood vessels. When inhaled, low doses of NO can selectively decrease the lung's blood vessel resistance without causing a dangerous drop in systemic blood pressure. In the last two decades, inhaled NO has become a standard of care and has been used for about a million patients worldwide, including term infants with acute pulmonary hypertension in the US and adults and children with pulmonary hypertension before and after cardiac surgery in other countries. The currently available tank-based system of delivering therapeutic gaseous NO, however, is outmoded and cumbersome, limiting NO to the largest hospitals in developed regions that have the infrastructure to transport, maintain, return and refill heavy compressed gas cylinders. Even in these markets, the large, heavy tanks hamper transport of patients within a hospital or between facilities, and make the use of NO nearly impossible outside of hospital settings. Third Pole's revolutionary technology electronically generates pure, functionally equivalent NO on site and on demand from air, enabling the use of inhaled NO for new therapies worldwide.

David Zapol, Chief Executive Officer of Third Pole, said, "We are very excited to have won Johnson & Johnson Innovation's JLABS @ M2D2 QuickFire Challenge. Third Pole's team has an ambitious vision to transform cardiopulmonary therapy. We are building on the discoveries that made tank-based inhaled NO the standard of care for pulmonary hypertension 20 years ago, and are developing next generation life-saving cardiopulmonary therapies capable of creating new markets and expanding access worldwide. With Professor Warren Zapol of Massachusetts General Hospital, a co-inventor of inhaled NO, as the head of our Scientific Advisory Board, our outstanding team, and now with the unparalleled access to resources at JLABS @ M2D2, we feel that the wind is at our backs as we work to launch our disruptive NO delivery systems over the next two years."

About Third Pole, Inc.

Third Pole is producing next generation cardio-pulmonary therapies that expand patient access. Our first product creates inhaled nitric oxide on-demand, on-site from air. Powered by innovative portable technology exclusively licensed from Massachusetts General Hospital we eliminate the need for cumbersome compressed gas cylinders and enable the worldwide use of inhaled NO in settings outside of acute care. Third Pole intends to bring its NO delivery system to market over the next two years. For more information, please visit www.pole3.com.

SOURCE Third Pole, Inc.