QuantuMDx closes $8.42m investment round for prototyping handheld MDx device
June 2 2014, Newcastle, UK Handheld molecular diagnostics device pioneer QuantuMDx Group announced it had closed an $8.42m funding round it syndicated with philanthropist private investors and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne following the recent publicity success of its Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.
The funds will be used to further optimize and trial Q-POC™, QuantuMDx’s handheld DNA sequencing & genotyping device, in addition to extending the Company’s assay pipeline, expanding its research teams and appointing an Advisory Board.
Elaine Warburton CEO and Co-Founder says “2014 will be an immensely exciting year for QuantuMDx as we demonstrate, in real-time, our ability to undertake 15 minute sample-to-result analysis for complex molecular diagnostics. Later this year when we formally unveil our prototype, we anticipate much interest from Life Science and Pharma companies seeking a low cost, high quality POC platform for diagnostics and to support drug development. Furthermore, we’re now looking to appoint a number of high quality, commercially minded but fun people onto our research team and also a number of key opinion leaders onto our Advisory Board.”
“Most of the basic research was completed last year and we moved into an engineering phase to integrate these technologies and chemistries at the beginning of this year. We are now moving into the testing phase of our alpha prototype,” says Jonathan O’Halloran, CSO, inventor and Co-Founder. “Excitingly, we envisage these devices to be readily distributed globally due to their low cost, fast turn-around times and referral standard testing. With networked devices all over the world we will have a platform to monitor emerging pathogens and drug resistance hotspots in real-time; a concept we like to call the Internet of Life™".
Field trials will commence early 2015 for Q-POC™’s first assays in malaria speciation/drug resistance, in partnership with NGOs and hospitals in several African countries, and a companion diagnostic for warfarin within the UK’s National Health Service, in anticipation of a commercial launch later in 2015.
About QuantuMDx Group
QuantuMDx Group is one of the most exciting biotechs to emerge from the UK and is developing a low cost, simple-to-use, handheld laboratory for 15-minute diagnosis of disease at the patient’s side, for commercialisation in 2015. The robust device, which reads and sequences DNA and converts it into binary code using a tiny computer chip, is ideally suited to help address the humanitarian health burden by offering molecular diagnostics at a fraction of the price of traditional testing.
Rapidly & accurately detecting and monitoring emerging drug resistance of infectious diseases such as malaria, TB and HIV will enable health professionals to immediately prescribe the most effective drug against that disease. Once the device has passed regulatory approval, it will be available in developed countries for infectious disease testing and rapid cancer profiling and, in time, be available over-the-counter at pharmacies.
Headquartered at The International Centre for Life in Newcastle, UK with subsidiaries in the USA (Chattanooga) and Asia (A*Star’s Genome Institute of Singapore), QuantuMDx was co-founded by Elaine Warburton, inventor and CSO Jonathan O’Halloran and CFO Julian Warburton. Fellow Board members include CMO Professor Sir John Burn, COO Dr Sam Whitehouse and President of QuantuMDx USA Paul Fitzpatrick. Prof Sanjeev Krishna chairs the Infectious Disease Advisory Committee.
QuantuMDx has received numerous awards for innovation and is the recipient of a number of large grants from The UK’s Technology Strategy Board (TB diagnostic), The Biomedical Catalyst Fund (tumour profiler), NHS NIHR’s Invention for Innovation Program (DNA sequencer) and the European Union (“NanoMal” malaria diagnostic).
www.quantumdx.com
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