A Newcastle making groundbreaking medical equipment has secured £15m in investment as it looks towards a commercial launch of its main products.
QuantuMDx Group, which has laboratories and offices near the city’s Quayside, has secured the equity investment from Vita Spring IVD Fund, a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm focused on early and growth stage medical device companies.
QuantuMDx has spent a number of years developing the Q-POC, a portable device that can diagnose a range of diseases at speed and away from hospital laboratories, making it potentially gamechanging for communities in the developing world.
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The company, which has already been backed by other funders and by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, plans to use the device for the diagnosis of coronavirus, sexually transmitted diseases and other serious illnesses.
It has also started talks with Chinese biotech company Sansure on an agreement that would significantly accelerate the commercial development of Q-POC in China and parts of south east Asia.
Jonathan O’Halloran, chief executive at QuantuMDx, said: “I am very pleased to announce this equity investment today which will enable us to further evolve the Q-POC platform, making our system one of the most innovative, high multiplexing, molecular point of care devices in the market.
“Vita Spring shares our mission of developing accurate and efficient solutions to identify pathogens and diagnose diseases and so we are delighted they have chosen to invest in QuantuMDx. We are also looking forward to our close future relationship with Sansure and believe they will be an excellent partner for QuantuMDx in China as we look to increase our global footprint in Chinese and adjacent markets.”
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QuantuMDx was formed in Sussex in 2008 and spent some of its early years in South Africa, but set up base in Newcastle in 2011 when it was attracted to life sciences facilities at the Centre for Life.
A number of North East investors have supported its development and last year it was awarded £16m in Government funding to develop Q-POC and disposable cassettes to allow for rapid testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes coronavirus.
James Yan, a partner at Vita Spring, said: “We are delighted to invest in QuantuMDx, which is equipped with world class technologies to address acute and ever-growing point of care testing needs globally.
“We are also fortunate to have the opportunity to bridge the innovative technology and platform into the China market and look forward to working with Jonathan and his team to fully realise the potential of QuantuMDx as it enters into the commercial stage.”
Dr Keya Zhang, head of corporate strategy at Sansure, said: “We are very impressed by the QuantuMDx team and by the capabilities of the Q-POC platform. QuantuMDx’s first test, a SARS-CoV2 detection assay on its Q-POC device, is already validated and on the market and it is clear there is a great deal of potential in other indications beyond that.
“We only partner with innovative, world-class businesses, and technology with proven advanced levels of performance, and so QuantuMDx is a natural fit for Sansure and its future expansion ambitions.”
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