O11 biomedical and the EIC Accelerator: Breathing Through the Gut

O11 biomedical, a 2022 spin-off from RWTH Aachen University and Aachen University Hospital, is developing RESPILIQ, a liquid taken by mouth or rectally that absorbs carbon dioxide in the intestine so it can be excreted, lowering CO2 in the blood of patients whose lungs cannot remove it. The condition, hypercapnia, affects around 1.8 million people in Europe, from premature babies to intensive-care patients and people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to CORDIS. The EIC Accelerator project received an EU contribution of €2,499,999 towards a total cost of €3,603,639 and ran from May 2024 to April 2026.

The project's first report, updated in August 2025, says O11 built a pilot plant and "successfully demonstrated the safety and efficacy of RESPILIQ" in preclinical studies, according to CORDIS. In March 2024 its investor High-Tech Gründerfonds wrote that RESPILIQ was "rapidly approaching market approval", according to HTGF. Two and a half years later, searches of ClinicalTrials.gov the EU's CTIS register and the German Clinical Trials Register found no study of RESPILIQ. Its website still describes RESPILIQ as a "therapy candidate" with preclinical results.

Where O11 biomedical Stands Now

O11's team page lists a chief executive, scientific and medical officers, and heads of production, quality control, quality management and regulatory affairs, according to O11 biomedical. The company moved to a new Aachen address in June 2025, and patents on its CO2 absorbent and delivery device were published in August and September 2026, according to North Data. Its registered share capital has stayed at €41,000 since September 2023, and no funding round since the 2023 seed has been announced.

The Technology: The Gut as a Lung

Standard treatment for hypercapnia removes CO2 through the lungs with mechanical or non-invasive ventilation, or through machines that pass blood through a membrane outside the body. RESPILIQ instead binds CO2 in the intestinal fluid, using the gut wall as an exchange membrane, so the lungs can rest. O11 calls it the first medical product to capture CO2 via the intestines. A six-week non-clinical in vivo study of its safety and efficacy has been published as a conference abstract in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

What the EIC Award Promised, and What the Record Shows

The project set out to revolutionise hypercapnia therapy for patients in intensive care and at home. It ended in April 2026 with preclinical results and a pilot plant, by the company's own account. The step that matters for patients, a clinical trial, has not been registered, and the project's final results are not public.

1. Preclinical safety and efficacyReportedProject report.
2. Production capabilityPilot plantProject report.
3. First human trialNot registeredNo registry entry.
4. Market approvalNot reachedStill preclinical.

The Money

At the end of 2024 O11 had total assets of €2.28 million, equity of €1.65 million, €375,000 of deferred income and liabilities of €220,748, according to its accounts via North Data. The EIC grant is the only public funding North Data records. The award was listed as blended finance, but no EIC Fund investment has been announced, and the share capital has not changed since 2023.

What Cannot Be Checked

Why Europe Should Care

A drink or enema that lowers blood CO2 could spare COPD patients hours on a ventilation mask and help intensive-care patients come off ventilators. If it works in people, it would be a genuinely new treatment. The EU has paid for the preclinical proof; the clinical evidence has not yet begun.

The Verdict

O11 biomedical and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.