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Sepsis, an acute inflammation triggered by infection, is a leading cause of childhood mortality, claiming roughly 3 million<\/a> children under the age of five annually.<\/p>\n Efferon<\/a>, a startup selected as one of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026\u2019s Startup Battlefield 200<\/a>, is on a mission to drastically lower that number.<\/p>\n The company has developed a medical device that it says lowers organ failure rates and significantly accelerates recovery in children.<\/p>\n When standard treatments like antibiotics cannot stop the immune system\u2019s overreaction, a patient\u2019s blood must be filtered to remove deadly toxins. That is where Efferon\u2019s devices, of absorbers of dangerous cytokines and toxins, step in to make a critical difference.<\/p>\n Dima Romashin, Efferon\u2019s co-founder and CEO, compares what happens in the body during sepsis to a fire, where an immune response overwhelms the body rapidly. \u201cIn a fire, there are two things: the flame itself and smoke that it produces,\u201d he told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n In sepsis, endotoxins are the flames and cytokines are the smoke. Efferon, unlike other devices on the market, has developed a mechanism that can absorb both at once, according to Romashin.<\/p>\n Although Efferon makes absorbers for adults, Efferon NEO, its pediatric device developed specifically for young kids, is proving especially effective. Since children have a significantly lower circulating blood volume, they require medical devices engineered specifically for their physiology, according to Romashin.<\/p>\n In April, Efferon NEO received a CE mark<\/a>, Europe\u2019s equivalent to FDA approval, making it the first multimodal blood purification device specifically engineered for pediatric sepsis.<\/p>\n Efferon NEO is used in intensive care units across 30 countries, including European hospitals, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand. The company is now preparing to file for FDA approval and is on track to hit $2 million in annualized revenue by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n The startup\u2019s technology was originally developed by scientists at Moscow State University, including co-founder Ivan Bessonov. Recognizing its potential, Romashin, a serial entrepreneur, stepped in earlier this year as CEO to help commercialize it.<\/p>\n Although Romashin admits that Efferon isn\u2019t growing at the breakneck pace of today\u2019s AI startups, true success for the company is measured by something else entirely: every child who gets to go home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n