On 12 February, QuantuMDx will launch an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to support the humanitarian health challenge to eradicate malaria by further developing and trialing their 15-minute malaria/drug resistance test using their handheld laboratory.

With one child dying every minute of malaria, the funds raised will be used to further expand clinical trials of the Company’s malaria diagnostic to allow health workers to tackle drug resistance. With no need for clean water or stable electricity, QuantuMDx’s rugged and user-friendly handheld lab will offer a technology leap to developing nations, giving even the most rural communities access to life saving diagnostics.

CEO Elaine Warburton OBE said “Our crowdfunding campaign is unique.  Not only are we looking for contributors to support this phenomenally worthy cause to help save many hundreds if not thousands of children’s lives, but we’re also offering everyone the chance to leave a lasting legacy in the fight against malaria by contributing their winning ideas to the look and feel of our device and to take part in re-naming it from the current research name of Q-POC™. Who knows, perhaps we’ll find the next Jonathan Ive? ”

CSO Jonathan O’Halloran said “We have spent years developing our tech and we now have a prototype device that has completed a sample-to-result malaria DNA test in under 15 minutes. Contributions will help take our life saving device from the lab to the field and directly save lives. We have health workers around the world crying out for our technology and are now receiving the support of major NGOs, we just need help to finalize our development and drive the technology through clinical trials.”

The Company will be releasing a series of trailers of the campaign to introduce the technology on their YouTube channel.
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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 from Newcastle University, 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).

Press release courtesy of QuantuMDX

published on: 11 February 2014