[source: Belluscura]
As sufferers of long Covid are increasingly seeking advice on buying their own oxygen to help breathlessness, London-listed Belluscura (BELL ) believes that its patented portable oxygen concentrator X-PLOR™ - the world’s first modular POC - has a clear place in this market.
According to the UK-based charity Asthma + Lung UK, which supports the 12 million people in the UK who will have a lung condition in their lifetime through its helpline, about half a million COVID-19 sufferers have visited its long COVID advice pages or called its helpline in the last six months.
The non-for-profit organisation recently informed Sky News that it has seen a near-doubling in sufferers between September and March this year as the Omicron variant surged in the UK.
As of 3 April 2022, an estimated 1.8 million people - that’s 2.8% of the UK population of 68,5 million - had long COVID, according to data available from the Office for National Statistics.
Sufferers have even been seeking advice on buying their own oxygen to help breathlessness, according to the charity - a risk if not issued on prescription and properly monitored, it noted.
The charity is now urging the government to invest more in research into treatments and provide more staff at long COVID clinics. The NHS has reportedly invested over £220m into specialist clinics and hubs, however, there might be a bigger part to play for targeted medical devices developers.
Belluscura, which specialises in developing portable and lightweight oxygen concentrators to treat patients suffering with severe respiratory conditions such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) as well as pneumonia, believes its X-PLOR™ device could also help long COVID sufferers.
This developer is behind the patented POC known as the X-PLOR™, a light-weight oxygen device that has proven to deliver up to 95% pure oxygen to patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The emphasis here - as Chief Executive Robert Rauker has pointed out - is in its light-weight form.
The X-PLOR device, which was granted 510(K) clearance from the US FDA in 2021, was specifically designed to replace metal oxygen tanks and heavier portable oxygen concentrator devices.
As a lighter alternative at only 3.75 pounds, it seems fair to suggest that this product - one that has been designed “with empathy”, as the company states - could assist sufferers even when undertaking strenuous activities, as opposed to sitting or walking around the house.
Since the launch of the first X-PLOR™ product into the growing supplemental oxygen market,Belluscura has seen strong progress. Between September 2021 and 31 December 2021, it sold 377 units, 25% above its consensus forecasts and 150% above initial forecasts for 2021.
In recent weeks - and as the global demand for portable oxygen concentrators increases - the company has said it intends to ramp up its manufacturing capacity with one of the world's leading electronics manufacturing companies as it opens itself to the larger Asian market.
The WHO says the global oxygen therapy market size is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 10.12% from 2021 to 2026 to be worth $18.55bn by 2026. The global portable oxygen concentrators market is forecast to be worth $2.76bn by 2026, a CAGR of 14%.
The company has also just expanded its oxygen enrichment patent portfolio, increasing the number of issued and pending patent applications owned or exclusively licensed to thirty.
The technologies covered by the three additional patents include extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) innovations for when people who are very ill with conditions of the heart and lungs; continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) innovations, a type of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) or breathing support; as well as consumer replaceable molecular sieve technology, which is used to remove Nitrogen from ordinary air to produce medical grade supplemental oxygen.
Belluscura, whose engineering team continues to develop next generation oxygen enrichment technologies, said it sees “significant” future opportunities in the supplemental oxygen field.
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