Efferon wants to eradicate the devastating toll of pediatric sepsis

Sepsis, an acute inflammation triggered by infection, is a leading cause of childhood mortality, claiming roughly 3 million children under the age of five annually. Efferon, a startup selected as one of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026’s Startup Battlefield 200, is on a mission to drastically lower that number.

脓毒症是一种由感染引发的急性炎症，是导致儿童死亡的主要原因，每年约有300万五岁以下儿童因此丧生。Efferon是一家入选TechCrunch Disrupt 2026“创业战场200强”（Startup Battlefield 200）的初创公司，其使命是大幅降低这一数字。

The company has developed a medical device that it says lowers organ failure rates and significantly accelerates recovery in children. When standard treatments like antibiotics cannot stop the immune system’s overreaction, a patient’s blood must be filtered to remove deadly toxins. That is where Efferon’s devices, of absorbers of dangerous cytokines and toxins, step in to make a critical difference.

该公司开发了一种医疗设备，据称可以降低儿童的器官衰竭率并显著加速康复。当抗生素等标准治疗方法无法阻止免疫系统的过度反应时，必须对患者的血液进行过滤以清除致命毒素。Efferon的设备正是通过吸收危险的细胞因子和毒素，在这一过程中发挥了关键作用。

Dima Romashin, Efferon’s co-founder and CEO, compares what happens in the body during sepsis to a fire, where an immune response overwhelms the body rapidly. “In a fire, there are two things: the flame itself and smoke that it produces,” he told TechCrunch. 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.

Efferon的联合创始人兼首席执行官Dima Romashin将脓毒症期间身体发生的情况比作火灾，即免疫反应迅速压倒了身体。他告诉TechCrunch：“在火灾中，有两样东西：火焰本身和它产生的烟雾。”在脓毒症中，内毒素是火焰，细胞因子是烟雾。据Romashin称，与市场上其他设备不同，Efferon开发了一种可以同时吸收两者的机制。

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.

尽管Efferon也生产成人吸收器，但其专门为幼儿开发的儿科设备Efferon NEO正显示出特别的效果。Romashin表示，由于儿童的循环血量明显较少，他们需要专门针对其生理结构设计的医疗设备。

In April, Efferon NEO received a CE mark, Europe’s equivalent to FDA approval, making it the first multimodal blood purification device specifically engineered for pediatric sepsis. Efferon NEO is used in intensive care units across 30 countries, including European hospitals, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand.

今年4月，Efferon NEO获得了CE认证（相当于欧洲的FDA批准），使其成为首款专门针对儿科脓毒症设计的多模式血液净化设备。Efferon NEO目前被用于包括欧洲医院、沙特阿拉伯和泰国在内的30个国家的重症监护室。

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. The startup’s 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.

该公司目前正准备申请FDA批准，并有望在2026年底实现200万美元的年化收入。该初创公司的技术最初由莫斯科国立大学的科学家（包括联合创始人Ivan Bessonov）开发。作为一名连续创业者，Romashin看到了其潜力，于今年早些时候出任首席执行官，以帮助将其商业化。

Although Romashin admits that Efferon isn’t growing at the breakneck pace of today’s AI startups, true success for the company is measured by something else entirely: every child who gets to go home.

尽管Romashin承认Efferon的发展速度没有当今的人工智能初创公司那么迅猛，但公司真正的成功是以完全不同的标准来衡量的：每一个能够平安回家的孩子。