Sepsis, the acute inflammation an infection triggers, claims roughly 3 million children under five every year, making it a leading cause of childhood mortality. Efferon aims to drive that figure down hard. When antibiotics and other standard treatments cannot stop the immune system from overreacting, the blood must be filtered of the toxins driving organ failure – and that is the job Efferon’s absorbers, which capture dangerous cytokines and toxins, are built to do.
Chief executive Dima Romashin likens sepsis to a fire with two parts: the flames, which are endotoxins, and the smoke, which is cytokines. The company says its device traps both at the same time, something competing products cannot do.
Efferon NEO, the pediatric model, was engineered around the smaller circulating blood volume children carry. It won a CE mark in April, the European counterpart to FDA approval, and hospitals in 30 countries now put it to use, among them Thailand and Saudi Arabia. An FDA filing is being prepared, and the company expects $2M in annualized revenue by the end of 2026.
Moscow State University scientists developed the technology, later commercialized when Romashin, a serial entrepreneur, took the CEO seat this year. Efferon is one of TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield 200 picks, and Romashin is candid that its growth curve looks nothing like a software company’s. Device startups rarely do.
