Research start-up Aodh Lifesciences gets tax holiday, looks to raise $ 1 mn

The company claims to have invented oxygen nano-bubbles to deliver intravenous oxygen

Aodh Lifesciences, a Hyderabad-based medical research start-up that claims to have invented oxygen nano-bubbles to deliver intravenous oxygen, has been given a tax benefit by the government's Inter-Ministerial Board (IMB) last week.

With this approval, the start-up is eligible for a three-year tax holiday up to a turnover of Rs 25 crore in a period of ten years.

Aodh is testing a process through which oxygen is directly administered into the bloodstream of a patient, whose lungs are incapable of absorbing enough oxygen required for the body. After being injected into the bloodstream, these nano-bubbles are expected to slowly release oxygen into the system to maintain 100 per cent oxygen saturation.

"It is first of its kind proprietary product with immense potential in stroke and hypoxia treatment," A Sivamallikarjuna Reddy, founder and chief executive officer of Aodh Lifesciences said. 

The product will have a significant impact on cancer medicine, critical care, neuro-degeneration and organ transplantation, according to Reddy.

Founded in September 2016, Aodh started work on this invention with Rs 10-lakh funding from the government's MSME department. The product, which is in a pre-clinical stage, may take three-four years to complete the process of clinical development and launch the product.

The tax exemption comes as an early breakthrough for Aodh, which is looking to raise money to complete the clinical development.
 

As many as 2,401 start-ups have been recognised so far under the Start-up India programme, of which only 30 start-ups have received the tax-exemption facility.

"We are looking to raise $ 1 million to fund the clinical development. We are also talking to few local players, who are into critical care and hypoxia management for out-licensing our product," Reddy told Business Standard.