Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

 Antibiotic resistance (AMR) is a major threat to global public health (WHO), potentially resulting in 10 million deaths each year by 2050, more than cancer and diabetes combined. AMR risks returning medicine to a pre-antibiotic age, putting routine surgeries at risk. Of the drug-resistant infections, urinary tract infections (UTIs) (150M reported cases globally p/a) account for ~14% of all antibiotic prescriptions and 1 in 4 sepsis cases are linked to a previous UTI. There is therefore a real need for a rapid diagnostic test to identify the optimum antibiotic treatment for a patient’s infection as quickly as possible. 

 Microplate Dx will tackle AMR and improve antibiotic stewardship, with a patented diagnostic test to rapidly pinpoint the correct antibiotic for infection treatment in <1 hour. The rapid, low cost technology will result in enhanced antibiotic stewardship by ensuring the right drug is quickly prescribed to the patient for a particular condition, ultimately reducing resistance rates and saving lives.

 The first product we are developing is for urinary tract infections (UTIs), although the platform potential of the technology means that in the future, test cartridges will be developed to treat other key infections (e.g. respiratory tract infections (RTIs), sepsis, meningitis, fungal infections etc), depending on market need.

Microplate is an on-demand test, and provides close-to-sample analysis at the point-of-care, avoiding samples being away to a central laboratory for processing. The current ‘gold-standard’ technology cannot provide this.