Please find attached the documents referred to in Helen's COO update on 19th March.

A new immunoassay biomarker diagnostic tool that is used in the detection of cancers caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) has attracted investment of over €2 million. The company which produces it is a biotech innovation firm from Germany called Abviris Deustchland. The company says this is the first available blood - based test shown to be specific enough to aid in diagnosis of HPV. Further, the rapid flow test delivers its results within 20 minutes.The early investment in the product...

MICROSENSDX RapiPRO™ LAMP for SARS-CoV-2 RECEIVES CE MARK APPROVAL Pioneering British biotech MicrosensDx has announced that its RapiPRO™ LAMP SARS-CoV-2 test has received CE Certification.The business, an established molecular diagnostics innovator with a 20-year history in IVD development, is a recognised expert in Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) testing, having developed proprietary tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics using the technology.MicrosensDx has revealed robu...

PulmoBioMed – a new medtech spin-out in the North East of England Launched with funding from Northumbria University and Innovate UK, and with its first product PBM-HaleTM in clinical trials in Europe, PulmoBioMed now seeks to close its £2.5 m initial equity capital raise. PBM-HaleTM, a Class 1 medical device, is designed to collect exhaled breath condensate samples in a non-invasive manner. The hand-held device captures a wide range of biomarkers including protein, RNA, DNA...

More than a million UK people have now been involved in research activities regarding COVID-19, according to the latest data from the National Institute for Health Research. The data shows that a total of 1,075,000 people have taken part in more than 180 studies which endeavour to reveal more and more about the virus. Of these research efforts, more than 100 were funded by the NIHR, equating for more than £108m of funding for COVID-19 research.The large number of research programme partici...

Attached to this page are the documents referred to in Helen's COO Update.

The NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) has announced the twelve new companies that will be joining the programme in 2021. This new set of ‘Fellows’ (innovators) will be addressing some of the most critical needs faced by patients and clinicians in the NHS. Their products will be scaled up and implemented into the NHS system over the next three years with the help of the collaborative effort. Three key priorities were flagged by the NIA when it invited new applications for this year: su...

Workplace rapid coronavirus testing has now become available to all English businesses, it has been confirmed. Companies of all sizes, including those with 50 employees or fewer, are now eligible to receive the tests which provide a result within 30 minutes, allowing workers to quickly self-isolate and protect colleagues. DHSC has stated that the tests will be free-of-charge to businesses until the 30th June this year, and companies are encouraged to register for the programme before 31st March....

*Note all documents mentioned in this piece are attached to this page for download.* This week we held our regular Covid-19 Task Force meeting where the first draft of our Strategic papers for publication “Emerging from the Pandemic” was discussed. External contributors so far are Chris Molloy, Alessandro Carabelli from COG UK and Dr Sharon Peacock. A drafting meeting to add and develop will be held on Tuesday 9th March at 15.00. Please register via EventBrite if you would like ...

Microsemi CRP LC-767G HORIBA Medical, specialists in automated in vitro diagnostic systems for haematology, haemostasis and clinical chemistry analysis, has obtained the CE Mark certification for its new generation of the Microsemi CRP haematology analyser, the Microsemi CRP LC-767G. This new generation analyser Microsemi CRP LC-767G is more compact and proposes enhanced software and network connectivity providing higher memory, usability plus a new parameter: Granulocytes-to- Lymphocy...