As Philips reaches a consent decree agreement with the FDA that will temporarily suspend its sales of sleep therapy devices in the U.S., competitor ResMed, meanwhile, is ramping up its product offerings.
ResMed unveiled the latest addition to its slate this week, announcing the launch of a new bi-level respiratory support device that will give doctors another option for treating their patients with sleep apnea beyond the segment-dominating CPAP machines. The AirCurve 11 device, which is compatible with all of ResMed’s masks, is now available in the U.S. with an international rollout on deck.
Bi-level devices like the AirCurve 11 provide two forms of positive airway pressure therapy—with different pressure levels depending on whether a user is inhaling or exhaling—compared to the single-level, continuous positive airway pressure of a CPAP machine.
The AirCurve 11 is also designed to match its therapy to a user’s normal breathing patterns with the help of an algorithm, dubbed ASVAuto, that looks for 13 indicators in the breath cycle 50 times per second to tailor the machine’s output to the length of the user’s inhales and exhales as well as their ventilation needs.
Meanwhile, that nightly output is wirelessly transferred to ResMed’s AirView cloud-based platform, where healthcare providers can monitor their patients’ therapy and remotely adjust it as necessary. The BiPAP machine data also go to the patient-facing myAir app, which they can use to track their progress and conduct regular check-ins about their treatment goals.
“We’ve seen patient compliance improve from 70% to 87% through the use of coaching features and the ability to track and view their nightly sleep data via MyAir and AirView, so we’ve incorporated these digital health applications into the new AirCurve11 series to enable maximum comfort and support throughout the therapy experience,” said Carlos Nunez, M.D., the company’s chief medical officer.
The new product launch comes shortly after ResMed CEO Mick Farrell touted the company’s ongoing hardware and software growth in its second-quarter earnings presentation.
For the first half of the company’s fiscal year 2024, which began July 1, ResMed reported revenues of more than $2.26 billion, up 14% from where it stood a year prior. Despite that solid revenue growth, however, ResMed’s first-half net income dropped 2%, from $435 million to $428 million, thanks to increased costs from acquisitions, the safety correction for its magnet-equipped masks and an ongoing reorg.
That restructuring began with the fiscal year and saw Farrell announce last fall the layoffs of 5% of ResMed’s 10,000-strong global workforce. It added expenses of just over $64 million in the second quarter, split primarily between employee severance payouts and the costs of winding down certain less profitable areas of the business.