Safe and discrete gastrostomy tube for enteral feeding improving the delivery of nutrition and patient care.

Project Information

GFeed

Grant agreement ID: 710834

DOI

10.3030/710834

Project closed

EC signature date 27 November 2015

Start date 1 December 2015

End date 31 March 2016

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Health, demographic change and well-being

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

FIDMI MEDICAL LTD
Israel

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GFeed (Safe and discrete gastrostomy tube for enteral feeding improving the delivery of nutrition and patient care.)

Reporting period: 2015-12-01 to 2016-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

GFeed project aims to introduce to the market a low-profile enteral feeding device, which improves nutrition supply and brings back a comfort to the patient’s life. The key objectives of the project are to optimise the current design of the device and to design the feeding kits in order to make it cost-efficient and to maximise the patient comfort, and finally to clinically validate device. A successful clinical demonstration of the technology will help overcome the concerns about the PEG devices created by the existing devices and will be fundamental to apply for the national based medical device reimbursement. The final outcome of the project is to start the full commercialization of the GFeed in Europe, in particular Israel and Germany and to request the medical device reimbursement in these countries.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The Phase 1 Feasibility Study has allowed Fidmi to enhance their knowledge of the existing technologies and competition, assess the feeding device market size, customer segments, the existing medical device regulations and standards, as well as to establish the sound clinical trial plan. After talking with the physicians, Fidmi understood that offering GFeed together with the feeding accessories (long disposable tube, gastric-J disposable tube, stomach decompression disposable tube) they will ease the market entrance.
The GFeed technology, with its competitive advantages, puts Fidmi in a strong position as the current devices have a high possibility of dislodgement (13%), clog (45%) and it’s painful to place, replace and remove. It is crucial that Fidmi advances its current technology and commercial readiness levels to experience significant growth and development in the following years.

The Feasibility Study also showed that the GFeed device will have a rapid market penetration and will reach a BEP in the first year.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Fidmi’s disruptive device will promote health and wellbeing; reduce healthcare costs; and improve quality of life. Fidmi proposes an innovative enteral feeding concept for the patients and gastroenterologists, applying new sets of rules, values and model to the enteral feeding market. Up to know the enteral feeding procedures were only possible visiting doctors. And traditional feeding tube replacement and removal were a painful, time and money consuming procedure. Nowadays the progress of the medical devices can for the first time offer a better and cheaper alternative to the millions of feeding device users and thousands of gastroenterologists. With an increasing prevalence of feeding devices, driven by an ageing population, increasing cancer and neurological disorders and a growing adoption of enteral nutrition; the GFeed solution is well positioned to improve European health and wellbeing, particularly for ageing population over 65 that suffer from poor quality of life.

GFeed prototype

GFeed device