Pune: All three founders of ‘AeroDel Technology Innovations’ have experienced asthma firsthand. That gave them an edge when it came to designing respiratory devices, knowing wherein lay the gaps. So when their devices hit the market, they were an instant hit. Pharma giants lapped them up, with Zydus partnering with the startup.
Such enthusiastic responses spurred AeroDel on to innovate and broaden its horizon. Founded in 2020 by Zahir Jaffer, the company has progressed by leaps and bounds and achieved success within a short span of time, a rare feat for a startup. But, as Zahir would say, their success mantra lies in the simple fact that they “have lived the problem!”.
Living with asthma
“I had asthma in my childhood,” Zahir said. “Even though I outgrew it in my later years, I know it can be devastating when you get an attack.”
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), India carries 12% of the global pool of 742 million asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients. In a single day, 3,300 people die from these respiratory diseases in the country.
Gaps in the market
“These may seem like numbers until you experience an attack yourself,” said Zahir, an MSc in Biotechnology Enterprise from Johns Hopkins University. He began his career with Glenmark in 2013, where he worked in product strategy for complex drug-device combination products before moving onto business development and alliance management. It was here that he was first exposed to the gaps in India’s respiratory device spaces.
Zahir left Glenmark in 2017 and co-founded ‘Blumen Biovitals’, a startup that licensed and sold nutraceutical finished products to large Indian pharmaceutical companies.
Shradha makes entry
In 2020, he recruited Shradha Sangwai to manage projects for the company. Shradha is a trained pharmacist, whose husband and son suffer from asthma.
Over time, Zahir realised that there was significant opportunity in respiratory device innovation. He felt that it would be far more interesting (and profitable) to own more of the value chain – to develop products themselves, not just license and sell.
“With respiratory diseases like asthma and COPD, we noticed that there was more potential in innovation on the devices used in treatment than on the molecules,” Zahir said. “So we thought, why not do something here?”
Problem with spacer
Their minds made up, Zahir and Shradha spoke to doctors and medical representatives across the country and received the same feedback.
“There were problems with the device itself,” Zahir said. “When a patient inhales via the pressurised metered-dose inhaler (pMDI), the drug is emitted very fast – faster than the speed at which it can be inhaled, which means not enough is going into the airways where it’s needed. Instead, it gets deposited in the mouth and throat, resulting in side effects like oral thrush and hoarse voice.”
Yet, despite these challenges, over 630 million pMDIs are manufactured globally every year. Doctors are
aware of the issue and recommend spacers (valved holding chambers) to improve pMDI drug delivery.
But, nine out of 10 times patients do not use spacers with their inhaler. Published research shows that
67-81% of patients knowingly stop using their spacers, and a survey of 715 patients confirmed that 87%
do not always use one. The reasons: spacers are too big to carry, patients do not like the way they look, do not feel like they do anything, and are embarrassed to use them outside the home.
“So you see, the problem does not end with the drug delivery,” Shradha said. “When your child needs a nebuliser in the dead of the night, you know what asthma can do. Patients with chronic mucus hypersecretion face additional challenges – frequent exacerbations, infections, and reduced quality of life, often with limited treatment options,”
And, beyond all of this, doctors have no way of knowing whether their patients are actually using inhalers correctly at home or not. “So despite pMDI and spacer being available for half a century, poor drug delivery and usability problems have not been solved,” Shradha said.
Simplifying inhalation
Zahir agreed with Shradha’s views and felt that the problem needed a solution. “And that is the problem our start-up, AeroDel, was founded to address: how do you simplify inhalation – drug delivery, airway clearance, nebulisation and disease management – for all respiratory patients?”
The two founders started off by focusing on patients’ needs, speaking to hundreds of them as well as medical representatives and doctors. Additionally, they started reading existing literature on the subject and conducted large-scale patient surveys. And when they felt they were ready, they began the actual work of creating devices that would be far more efficient and easy to use, following a patient-centred design process.
Flagship AeroFlex
“For our first product, AeroFlex, we developed a swivel mechanism – a ‘foldable always-attached’ concept – and got it patented in 2022,” Zahir said. “Laboratory testing showed that AeroFlex can deliver 50% of the drug to the lungs, while significantly reducing the drug deposited in the mouth and throat compared to using a pMDI that reaches 30% drug delivery.”
Suraj roped in
At this stage, they felt a strong need for a design expert to accelerate product development. And they approached Suraj Rajan, the third founder of the company.
K.K. Suraj Rajan is a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Pune and had spent his career
building products across industries – orthopaedic implants at Johnson and Johnson in Mumbai and Leeds (UK), safety products at 3M, and medical devices at Biorad Medisys and Nesa Medtech. He had also co-founded Faberz Technologies, a product design consultancy.
Shradha and Zahir felt that Suraj was the perfect fit for AeroDel. They acquired Faberz and Suraj became the third co-founder in 2023.
The problem resonated immediately with Suraj too, just like it had with Shraddha and Zahir. Suraj’s wife has been living with asthma for years.
“When I saw what they were trying to do, it just clicked,” Suraj said. “I had spent my career designing products for medical use, but this was a chance to design something for my own family. The engineering challenge was clear: how to get spacer-level drug delivery into something small enough to stay in a patient’s pocket.”
So, from thereon, Suraj led the execution sprint – managing device design iterations, tooling, manufacturing infrastructure setup at the Pune facility, production, and assembly.
“Our iteration timelines were significantly shorter than what you’d typically see in medical devices,” Suraj said. “We had to move fast without compromising on quality – setting up manufacturing, qualifying tools, and producing commercial batches – all the while continuing to refine the design.”
AeroDel’s portfolio
Ever since the three came together, AeroDel has designed and developed a portfolio of devices for respiratory patients.
AeroFlex (pMDI enhancer) is their flagship product. A non-bulky spacer tube that remains attached to the patient’s pMDI and fits in your pocket. “Flip it open, inhale, fold it back. With AeroFlex, we wanted to evolve from spacers to a new category – pMDI enhancers,”
Suraj said.
Next in the line was AerOPEP, an airway clearance device that creates gentle vibrations when you exhale into it. These vibrations loosen mucus deep in the airways so that it can be coughed up. It replaces techniques that require a physiotherapist or hospital visit, and costs around ₹1,000. Clearing the airways can also improve inhaled drug delivery, Suraj explained.
And then there is JetMist, a portable nebuliser for geriatric patients and small children, that converts liquid medication into an inhalable mist. It is ultra-compact, runs on built-in batteries charged via USB-C, and can work anywhere. “It’s a far more convenient option than the large jet nebulisers that always need to be plugged into a socket, are bulky, and loud,” Shradha said.
And, last but not the least, comes ActiveControl, a small smart module that attaches to the pMDI and tracks whether the patient has taken medication or not, whether the inhalation technique was correct, and how the lung health is trending over time. “It sends the data to a mobile app, giving both the patient and doctor
visibility into what’s actually happening between clinic visits. Think of it as a fitness tracker for your inhaler,” said Zahir.
Sourcing funds
With all these devices in their basket, the founders’ hands are full. But, there was a time, especially during the research phase, when AeroDel was bootstrapped. The founders kept investing their time and resources while the early research and development (R&D) work was underway. Only when they had a patented product in hand, did they seek external help – funds to begin manufacturing and finding marketing partners.
The seed fund raised was ₹2.15 crore – from Venture Center, AIC-CCMB, and individual investors. MSInS provided support for international patent filing – up to ₹12 lakh. Government grants followed: ₹4 lakh from MeitY TIDE and ₹11 lakh from BFI-BIOME’s Kickstarter programme, both supported by C-CAMP. AeroDel also won $1,000 from Stanford’s Seed Spark Pitch.
In the second round, the founders’ target is ₹8 crore, to fund India launches of AerOPEP, JetMist, and SpiroDel Diagnostics; global launches of AeroFlex and AerOPEP in emerging markets and later the US and EU; and further R&D on ActiveControl and the broader pipeline of complex devices.
Tough competition
To set foot and leave a footprint in the respiratory device market is not at all easy as it is full of established players.
Zahir gave an insight into the market. Globally, Trudell Medical International’s AeroChamber has been the gold standard in spacers for decades, while Cipla’s Zerostat range dominates the Indian market. But all of these are conventional tube-shaped devices that patients carry separately, and as data shows, most patients simply don’t. In airway clearance, devices like Aerobika and Acapella are well-established internationally, but their pricing has kept them out of reach for most Indian patients.
Portable nebulisers from Omron, Philips, and others exist, but mesh-based designs are prone to clogging – a persistent frustration for patients and caregivers. And in the connected inhaler space, companies like Aptar and Adherium have developed smart add-ons for inhalers in Western markets, but no affordable option exists in India today.
AeroDel’s USP
However, no single competitor addresses all of these gaps. And this is AeroDel’s USP!
Suraj elaborated, “We’re building a portfolio that covers drug delivery, airway clearance, nebulisation, and monitoring – designed from the ground up for affordability and daily use in India, with global IP protection to take them international.”
AeroDel holds a granted utility patent in India, Australia, and Saudi Arabia, and has filed for patents in 46 other countries, including the US, 39 European countries, Brazil, Canada, among others. The company also has
four design registrations and has filed 13 trademarks.
Partnering with Zydus
But, they still felt the need to partner with an established company that has a wide reach across India – something that would take AeroDel years to build.
“We approached several pharma companies to partner with,” said Zahir, “And we chose Zydus given their vision for respiratory health and interest in innovation. With this partnership, Zydus leverages their expertise, strength, and distribution to bring the products into the hands of as many patients as possible. The complementary strengths pave the way for a successful partnership. It also allows AeroDel to focus on finding new problems and solving them for respiratory patients.”
Zydus has licensed two AeroDel products: Aerolife Mini™ (AeroFlex) and PEPAIR™ (AerOPEP), both now being launched pan-India.
Manufactured in Talawade
All AeroDel devices are manufactured at its facility in Talawade, Pune. The immediate focus is the pan-
India expansion of launched products with Zydus, followed by the launch of JetMist, SpiroDel
respiratory diagnostics, and ActiveControl.
Beyond the current portfolio, AeroDel’s ambitions extend to global markets and the development of increasingly complex devices such as next-generation dry powder inhalers, smart jet nebulisers, slow-mist inhalers, respiratory and sleep diagnostics, therapy solutions for obstructive sleep apnea, and ultra-compact oxygen concentrators.
Make in India
Although AeroDel started with the most urgent problems – getting more drugs to the lungs, clearing the airways, and making nebulisation portable, its founders’ vision has always been much broader.
They want AeroDel to be the company that simplifies every aspect of respiratory care for patients in India and, eventually, the world.
“We want to make devices in India for the whole world,” Zahir summed up.
