Medical device company Sempresto, Inc has earned a prestigious 2026 Red Dot Design Award for its smartphone-integrated epinephrine auto-injector concept. Developed in partnership with science and engineering consultancy Sagentia Medical, the compact device attaches directly to a smartphone, aiming to ensure that life-saving treatment for severe allergic reactions is readily within reach.
The innovation addresses an urgent, widespread challenge in allergy management. An estimated 220 million people worldwide live with food allergies, and epinephrine serves as the essential first-line intervention for anaphylaxis. Despite the high stakes, studies consistently show that many patients fail to carry their prescribed auto-injectors at all times, potentially leaving them without immediate access to epinephrine during an unexpected allergic emergency.
Sempresto’s solution was born from a straightforward behavioral insight: while patients may leave traditional auto-injectors behind, they rarely go anywhere without their smartphones. By integrating emergency medication with an everyday essential device, the concept is designed to improve accessibility and emergency preparedness without changing the underlying therapy.
The design was lauded by the Red Dot jury for balancing aesthetic quality, user experience, and practical functionality. “At Sempresto, we are driven by a singular mission: ensuring that life-saving medications are available when and where they are needed most,” said Elizabeth Reczek, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder of Sempresto. “This recognition from Red Dot validates our belief that thoughtful, human-centered design can help solve critical healthcare challenges. We are honored to receive this award and grateful to the Sagentia Medical team for helping bring this vision to life.”
Bringing the prototype to reality required extensive technical and usability expertise from Sagentia Medical, whose contributions included industrial design, user experience development, instructions for use, internal mechanism design, and functional testing of the safety and injection mechanisms. “Our work with Sempresto focused on translating an innovative idea into a practical device that could improve access to life-saving treatment while maintaining the reliability, functionality and usability expected of an emergency drug delivery system,” explained Carl Hewett, Vice President of Design at Sagentia Medical.
As one of the world’s largest and most prestigious design competitions, the Red Dot Design Award recognizes outstanding achievements in design. An international jury of design experts selected winners based on innovation, functionality, quality, and overall design excellence. Importantly, the Sempresto device remains a concept and prototype rather than an approved or commercially available epinephrine auto-injector, and the award recognizes its design rather than demonstrating clinical efficacy or improved real-world adherence.
Looking ahead, the recognition represents a significant milestone as Sempresto advances development of the device toward commercialization. Under its mission, “Always There, Always Connected,” the company envisions extending the concept beyond epinephrine through a future portfolio of connected rescue medications intended to improve access, adherence, and patient outcomes. If successfully developed and commercialized, the smartphone-integrated approach could offer a novel way of addressing one of the longstanding challenges in anaphylaxis preparedness: ensuring epinephrine is actually available when an emergency occurs.
We at SnackSafely firmly believe the allergic community needs more options for emergency epinephrine. Sempresto’s solution addresses a critical challenge by helping ensure an auto-injector isn’t left at home and is readily within reach when needed.
That said, a study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology estimates that 1 in 10 anaphylactic reactions requires more than one dose of epinephrine, and the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology recommends that people at risk for anaphylaxis carry two doses.
We look forward to learning more about Sempresto’s solution, including how the company plans to address the need for a second dose.
