Project description
Helping nature in a more natural way could boost fertility for millions
Infertility affects millions of couples globally. Aside from the emotional and physical toll that unsuccessful treatments and failure to conceive can have on couples, fertility treatments can come with a hefty price tag. This economic barrier can make access to treatment challenging for those with fewer financial resources. Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is simpler and less costly than in vitro fertilisation (IVF) but the success rates are much lower. The EU-funded EVIE 2.0 project is bringing its patented, FDA-approved IUI, EVIE, to market as an alternative to conventional IUI. Since EVIE more than doubles a patient's chance of success compared to standard IUI for patients under 35, storks could soon be on their way to millions of couples worldwide.
Objective
Infertility impacts 25 million European citizens and 90 million couples globally (1 in 6 couples). Europe’s total fertility rate is among the lowest in the world, at 1.5 children per woman, a figure that is expected to decrease further to 1.2 by 2030 – making it a critical public health issue.
Typically, infertility is treated with intrauterine insemination (IUI) or IVF. IUI is the most common first-line treatment as it is non-invasive and relatively cheap, but its success rate of around 7% means that IVF, a far more expensive and invasive procedure, with an overall success rate of around 30% becomes necessary. The market needs an affordable, easily accessible, non-invasive alternative that increases the success rate.
EVIE 2.0 is a patent protected, fully automatic slow release insemination device that bypasses the hostile cervix to slowly release sperm into the uterus over four hours via a proprietary balloon catheter and an insemination syringe. Unlike standard Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), EVIE mimics nature by slowly and gently releasing the sperm - maximizing the opportunity for the sperm to reach the egg and increasing the prospect of fertilization - more than doubling the success rate of 7.2% to 18.7% and decreasing the average cost per pregnancy. EVIE 2.0 will transform the infertility market by providing an alternative non-invasive first-line treatment solution with
increased success rate, reducing the need for couples to resort to expensive and complex treatments. To have EVIE 2.0 fully projected at a European and global level we need a further investment of €2.5M to complete all product development, scale-up and complete a clinical study. The proposed work in Phase 1 of the SME instrument fits into our overall plan to reach the market by contributing the financial resources needed to plan a fast, sound and widee deployment of EVIE 2.0.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
4325623 RA ANANA
Israel
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.