Snapshot of the R&D landscape of postpartum haemorrhage devices (2000-2023)
By Policy Cures Research (now Impact Global Health) 1 May 2023
A clear need for innovation
Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is defined as blood loss of 500mL or more after birth. It is the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide, responsible for over one-fifth of all maternal deaths globally, the greatest burden of which are felt in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Despite an international commitment to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by the year 2030, several countries are expected to fall short. While medicines are the cornerstone of PPH prevention and treatment, the current catalogue is suboptimal, particularly for LMIC settings where issues related to quality, cold-chain transport and storage, and skilled administration limit access.
Low-tech medical devices can serve as an important intervention when medications fail or are unavailable, with some (uterine balloon tamponades) currently recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for treatment of PPH for women who do not respond to standard first-line treatment.
Use of devices in the management of PPH is fairly recent, however. Outside of anti-shock garments, the first case report on the use of a device in managing PPH was in 1985, when a Foley Catheter was used as a uterine balloon tamponade device (UBT). More than fifteen years later in 2001, the first purpose-built PPH device – the Bakri Balloon – was developed. In the intervening years, the landscape of PPH devices has evolved, but many still lack strong evidence for efficacy. Despite a clear need for innovation, the PPH biomedical product landscape remains sluggish.
Improved medicines will be critical to improving PPH outcomes, however innovations in low-tech approaches such as devices will also be essential to shoulder the burden of reducing deaths due to PPH, particularly in resource-limited settings.
Full report
Download the PDF of the full report analysing the landscape of maternal health medicines between 2000 and 2021.
This report was written as part of the ‘Accelerating Innovation for Mothers’ (AIM) project spearheaded by the Concept Foundation and delivered in partnership with Impact Global Health (then Policy Cures Research) and Burnet Institute. A key objective was to develop the first comprehensive pipeline database of maternal health products in development over the past two decades, including all devices in use or investigated for PPH between 2000 and 2023.
PDF of the report