MENLO PARK, Calif.– Apreo Health, a clinical-stage medical device company developing a tissue-sparing approach to treating severe emphysema, announced the presentation of new data from its BREATHE Airway Scaffold program during three oral sessions at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress 2025 in Amsterdam. The results demonstrated improvements in lung function, airway patency, and quality of life across a wide range of patients, including those historically excluded from other therapies.
“These findings reinforce the applicability of our therapy across multiple disease phenotypes,” said Karun Naga, CEO of Apreo Health. “The BREATHE Airway Scaffold represents a potentially meaningful step forward in interventional emphysema care – one designed to expand patient access through a minimally invasive, tissue-sparing alternative to surgery and other higher-risk procedures.”
The analyses were drawn from Apreo’s BREATHE 1&2 First In Human studies, which achieved 92.4 percent technical success with no cases of post-procedural pneumothorax, a common complication with other lung volume reduction approaches. In one study, patients showed sustained reductions in residual volume (−0.71 L at six months) that correlated with meaningful improvements in patient-reported outcomes and six-minute walk distance, while improvements in FEV₁ were modest and less strongly tied to clinical benefit. Another analysis confirmed that benefits were consistent regardless of emphysema distribution or fissure integrity, suggesting the scaffold can be effective in patients with homogeneous disease or incomplete fissures. High-resolution CT imaging also confirmed significant improvements in airway lumen patency at six months, supporting the scaffold’s ability to maintain airway openness and reduce hyperinflation.
“These findings reflect a broader reality we’re seeing in emphysema care: patient benefit isn’t always captured by standard lung function tests,” said Dr. Anand Tana, clinical researcher at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London. “By focusing on hyperinflation and using a therapy that works across multiple phenotypes, we can potentially expand access to interventional treatment for patients who’ve historically been left out.”
Dr. Theresa Klemm, Internal Medicine & Pneumology at Wiener Gesundheitsverbund, Vienna, added: “The imaging data confirm what we see clinically, which is that the scaffold keeps airways open in regions of the lung that would otherwise collapse. Maintaining that structural stability is key to achieving sustained reduction in hyperinflation and meaningful symptom relief.”
“The data presented at ERS highlight a promising new direction in treating severe emphysema and reflect Apreo Health’s commitment to advancing science and care,” said Dr. Martin Mayse, chief scientific officer of Apreo Health. “We are grateful to our investigators and research partners for helping bring this therapy forward.”
