While you weren’t looking, the asthma market got very interesting this week.

On Wednesday, $US16bn sleep apnoea company ResMed bought a US startup that does analytics for inhalers.

Some investors are pitching this as a boon for the asthma stocks listed in Australia, specifically Respiri (ASX:RSH), and Adherium (ASX:ADR) which has similar technology to the company ResMed just bought.

Respiri has built a device and app to measure ‘wheeze’, a known symptom of asthma, and says it’ll be on the market by the second quarter of 2019.

The $43m company just saw off two directors and a chairman ahead of the AGM last week, and the introduction of a prior director, Ross Blair-Holt, and prominent respiratory expert Dr Bruce Thompson.

Adherium has made a device to go over an inhaler and an app that reminds people to take their medication.

The $6.5m company already has its product in the market, saying that it had sold 135,000 sensors by the end of September, and were acquiring 10 new subscribers to the app every day.

Adherium pulled in $1.3m in receipts in the September quarter, with $1.1m of that being from sales.

Asthma is a reasonably common illness, with about one in nine people suffering, according to Asthma Australia.

A Deloitte report found that in 2015 the illness cost Australians $28b every year in medication and the ‘burden of disease’ costs that includes premature death and other forms of suffering.

Around the world the disease affects about 400 million people.

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