ResMed strives to be ‘true sleep therapy company’

SAN DIEGO – ResMed is taking another step to diversify its product offerings, as well as boost its digital health presence, with its recently announced acquisition of mementor, says CEO Mick Farrell. 

mementor, which is based in Leipzig, Germany, develops and sells digital medical products and has the only permanently listed digital health application in sleep medicine that is reimbursed by statutory insurances in the country. 

“As we consider opportunities to address the wider sleep market, we are investing in opportunities to address another major sleep disorder epidemic, that of insomnia,” said Farrell to investors and analysts during a recent conference call. “mementor broadens our focus in this vertical from a sleep apnea therapy company to a true sleep therapy company.” 

ResMed also made a diversification and digital health play in 2018, when it bought Propeller Health, which makes small sensors that can be attached to inhalers to monitor medication usage for people with COPD and asthma. 

mementor’s somnio is currently available as an “app on prescription” only in Germany, opening the door for ResMed to expand the offering in other markets in Europe and around the world, Farrell says. 

“There’s an unmet need in diagnosing and treating people with sleep problems, such as sleep apnea and insomnia, the two biggest sleep problems on the planet,” he said. 

In Germany, about one in 10 people are affected by clinically relevant insomnia and nearly three in 10 have sleep apnea, according to ResMed. 

“Insomnia has been shown in clinical research to occur in combination with sleep apnea,” Farrell said, “and that’s a deadly combination.”