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Moroccan innovator Youssef El Azouzi has confirmed that the Japan Patent Office (JPO) has officially recognized his startup’s innovation as the first endovascular white blood cell filtration device.
Speaking to Morocco World News (MWN), the Moroccan doctor described the patent’s approval as an “immense privilege given the fact that the JPO is one of the leading and most academically rigorous patent offices in the world.”
According to El Azouzi, the patent’s acceptance confirms the originality of the invention; if there had been any prior literature or technology describing a similar device or process, the JPO would have rejected his startup’s patent.
The significance of the patent lies in how Japan single-handedly controls approximately half of the global market for white blood cell filtration devices, the innovator adds.
“Japan not only exports amazing extracorporeal (outside the body) WBC filtration products but also has a major influence as far as global innovation trends in this sector are concerned,” he continued.
This means that the patent also confirms that the invention is realistic and has the potential to be used in a safe and effective manner to ultimately improve the lives of patients worldwide. This development follows the startup’s announcement last year of the first large animal testing phase for the endovascular blood filtration device, he told MWN.
“Japan is potentially the most strategic country to protect this invention, given the more advanced capabilities and infrastructure it has in this field. This makes them a more likely country where other companies may seek to emulate what we have designed and produced,” he added.
El Azouzi’s spectacular journey
El Azouzi has garnered global attention for his pioneering work, including being crowned the Arab world’s top innovator for a heart failure stent.
He also attracted attention for developing a device that filters blood from inside the vessels.
In a previous interview with MWN, El Azouzi detailed his passion for research that involved unexplored and innovative ideas.
“I always wanted, at some point in the future, to discover or to develop something novel and innovative, something that would be groundbreaking and would change the paradigm of thinking in medicine,” he said.
The doctor always had a desire to develop solutions, taking an interest in combining hydropower with geothermal into one renewable energy loop system.
El Azouzi was born in 1991 in Rabat. He attended an international boarding school in Oxford at the age of 16 before studying neuroscience at an American university.
He completed his medical studies in Turkiye in 2017, specializing in general medicine.
In 2019, the Moroccan doctor won the Grand Final of Arab Stars of Science Season 11, becoming the Arab world’s top innovator.
His project, Flow Modulator Stent, received the highest scores from the jury and public, earning a combined 93.8 points and winning the prize of $300,000.
His innovation was designed to help congestive heart failure patients around the world by ensuring efficient blood flow through the heart.
