Ventus Medical is pleased to announce the Indian launch of its proprietary Provent® Sleep Apnea Therapy, an innovative, non-invasive treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Orbees Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd. will be the strategic market developer of Provent Therapy in India.
"India has a very high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea. Roughly 20% of urban Indian males suffer from OSA," said Rajiv Doshi, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Ventus Medical and inventor of the Provent technology. Dr. Doshi is faculty at Stanford University and serves as Executive Director (US) of the Stanford India Biodesign program, a Government of India funded collaboration between Stanford University and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. "With a very large patient need, we believe that Provent Therapy provides a reliable and clinically-proven solution to treat the millions of people in India with OSA."
In patients with OSA the airway collapses during sleep when the muscles that hold it open relax. People with this disorder stop breathing during the night---in some cases hundreds of times each night---usually for periods of ten seconds or longer. Sleep apnea can lead to fatigue, early morning headaches, irritability, lack of concentration, and contributes to depression, learning and memory difficulties, and sexual dysfunction. Importantly, many recent studies have shown that OSA is associated with high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, heart attack, stroke and diabetes.
"Many people in India go undiagnosed and very few receive treatment due to the many complexities associated with existing treatment options, such as CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure)," said Dr. Manvir Bhatia, Director of Neurology and Sleep Centre, New Delhi. "There is an increasing need for OSA treatments that do not rely on power and are highly portable – Provent Therapy represents one such alternative for our patients and is likely to become a first line of therapy."
Ensuring ready access and good patient support for Provent Therapy are important considerations when serving the Indian sleep apnea patient. "As we expand Provent Therapy's international presence, we believe India provides an unparalleled opportunity for Ventus," commented Peter Wyles, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ventus Medical. "We've established a business relationship with a strategic market developer in India to help us launch and develop the right distribution network across this large market. We believe that the partnership with Orbees will allow us to optimize the business model for this emerging, complex market."
"We are proud to help Ventus introduce this game-changing therapy to sleep medicine experts and their patients in India," added Dr. Anurag Mairal, Executive Vice President of Orbees. "Our first-of-its-kind market research, that surveyed hundreds of potential patients and physicians, has proven to us that the market is significantly underserved with less than 0.1% of the Indian OSA population diagnosed, and less than 25% of the OSA diagnosed patients receiving treatment."
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