Lazzaro Medical wins $2.4M SBIR grant from National Institutes of Health

BOULDER — Lazzaro Medical Inc., a Boulder-based medical-device firm, recently received a $2.4 million Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health to help develop a robotically assisted tracheal repair procedure. 

“Winning this grant underscores the critical importance of our work,” said LM co-founder Robert Israel said in a prepared statement. “It builds on our recent collaboration with Mayo Clinic and funding from other strategic partners including Northwell Health, the Global Business Development division of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), and one of the leading manufacturers of robotic surgical systems which will expedite bringing our LM Scaffold System to market.” 

The scaffold system is being developed to treat tracheobronchomalacia, or TBM, a condition that weakens the patient’s airway. 

“Tracheobronchomalacia is devasting for patients, and previous treatments have often been more burdensome than the disease itself, significantly impacting patient recovery and healthcare costs,” LM co-founder and chief medical officer Richard Lazzaro said in a statement. “This funding will help us reduce the timeline for making our first-in-class treatment available to the millions of patients who could benefit.”