UK Lifescience Industry issue 12

United Kingdom

Advances in health technology

Issue 12

INDUSTRY

Working togetherto improve British life science

How Medilink UK organisations are contributing to the health and wealth of the nation

INSIDE: Enhancement:

Improving medical technology

Future watch:

Potential healthcare game changers

Going global:

Cracking global markets

Meeting the unmet:

Responding to unmet clinical needs

TURN YOUR MEDICAL OR SCIENTIFIC IDEAS INTO COMMERCIAL REALITY

MEDICAL DEVICE PRODUCT DESIGN & VA L U E E N G I N E E R I N G

Electronics

Optronics

Software Design

Mechanical Engineering

Industrial Design

Low Volume Manufacturing

RFID

Rapid Prototyping

brilliant ideas into commercial reality.

Life science

GPS/GPRS Tracking

At GX we take an innovative approach to medical and

Microfluidics

Regulatory Support

By combining science with practical design we help turn

pharmaceutical product design and value engineering. We understand how to harness life science and biotechnology in order to develop practical, commercial products.

www.g xg ro u p.co m +44(0)1291 673437 PRODUCT DESIGN

VA L U E E N G I N E E R I N G

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“

A message from the editor

The Medilink contribution to the UK’s life science sector

This edition

Welcome to this edition of UK Lifescience Industry, launched at Med-Tech Innovation Expo 2017.

UK Lifescience Industry highlights a selection of new innovations in British life science, which in this edition includes a portable ultrasound brain scanner for soldiers in the field, as well as research into reducing Issue 5 the impact of stress on a person’s mood. Advances in wound care encompass the use of 3D technology for Issue 5 measuring and remote monitoring, and plasma for Issue 5 treatment and healing.

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Med-Tech Innovation Expo

The UK and Ireland’s leading showcase for medical technology and innovation

Enhancement

Going global

10 Portable scanner detects brain ISSUE 4 damage in2012 soldiers

22 International trade success for mortuary equipment manufacturer

2012 ISSUE 4

ISSUE 4 11 Brain stimulation2012 combats stress

12 Using data to understand the needs of the elderly

23 Developing a dialysis machine for Malaysia

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L L L

Future watch

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Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu Editor fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in FOR PUBLISHEDPUBLISHED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUBLISHED FOR

Produced by MediWales for Medilink UK y, Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff CF10 4DZ Produced byDesign MediWales for Medilink UK Designed

by Teamworks & Marketing 7 Schooner Way, Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff CF10 4DZ 456 Web: www.mediwales.com Designed

by Teamworks Design & Marketing Produced by 3456 MediWales and published in The Bonded Warehouse, Atlantic Wharf, Tel: 029 2047 Web: www.mediwales.com n this publication do not necessarily represent partnership with Medilink UK. ProducedCardiff

by MediWales CF10 4HF for Medilink UK Contact: The views expressed inunless this publication do not necessarily represent dual Medilink UK members explicitly y, Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff CF10 4DZ Contact: the opinions of individual Medilink UK members unless explicitly Ltd. 2012 Designed by Teamworks Design & Marketing Designed

by Teamworks. stated. © MediWales Ltd. 2012 Editor: Jess 456 Web: www.mediwales.com Tel:Fisher 029 2047Jess 3456 Web: www.mediwales.com Editor: Fisher www.teamworksdesign.com jess@uklifescienceindustry.com n this publication do not necessarily represent jess@uklifescienceindustry.com Contact: The views dual Medilink UK members unless explicitly expressed in this publication do not For editorial and advertising opportunities Ltd. 2012 Advertising: Charlotte Tyson Advertising: Charlotte Tyson of individual necessarily represent the opinions Editor: Jess Fisher please contact: ruth@uklifescienceindustry.com ruth@uklifescienceindustry.com Medilink UK members unless explicitly stated.

Editor: Sophie Davies jess@uklifescienceindustry.com © MediWales Ltd. 2017 editor@uklifescienceindustry.com Advertising: Charlotte Tyson

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24 British and French lab suppliers join forces 25 Orthopaedic implant manufacturer cracks international markets 26 Addressing the challenges of global vaccination 27 British cooling vest saves lives on Mecca pilgrimage

Meeting the unmet 28 Making urine sample collection easier, cleaner and more reliable 29 Digitally collecting preoperative data 30 Improving the efficiency of cervical examinations 31 Patient monitoring system detects early signs of sepsis 32 Altius catheters reduce risks to patients 33 Using hyperthermia in the treatment of bladder cancer

your 34 Check dates UK Lifescience Industry Event Calendar 2017-18

www.medilinkuk.com www.medilinkuk.com View an interactive version of this www.medilinkuk.com edition at www.medilinkuk.com

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What is Medilink UK? Founded in 2005, Medilink UK is the national business support organisation for health technology. With over sixteen hundred registered members, seven regional offices and forty-one staff located across the United Kingdom, Medilink UK possesses a unique combination of regional knowledge combined with both national and international reach.

Medilink UK combines the strengths of each of the Medilink regional organisations with MediWales and the South East Health Technology Alliance. It also works with other regional partners, business support organisations and national trade associations to represent the interests of members, create business opportunities and promote the life science sector, aiming to improve the health and wealth of the UK as a whole.

Medilink UK supports connections within the health technology supply chain, working with manufacturers, suppliers, designers and professional services as well as with end users and healthcare providers. Equally important to the health technology sector is a close relationship between industry and academic research.

These combined connections between academic, business and clinical partners (ABC) define the community that Medilink UK works to support.

Medilink UK has an expanding and developing programme of international trade missions, conferences and exhibitions, which leads the UK effort in developing international trade opportunities for the sector. With a team of highly qualified and experienced experts, Medilink UK also provides bespoke

consultancy for companies that are diversifying or investing in the sector.

Medilink UK partners deliver a packed schedule of events throughout the year. This includes specialist-focused seminars and workshops intended to share opportunities, good practice and expertise, and to disseminate commercial funding and collaboration opportunities. National events, including the annual conference and awards ceremony, are an opportunity to bring together the entire UK community to celebrate the last year’s achievements and develop contacts for new collaborations in the coming years. The UK Lifescience Industry magazine is an opportunity to promote the successes of the health technology sector to an expanding readership in the UK and abroad.

Medilink UK. Some impressive figures

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1,610 Member organisations

North East

21 Graduates 8 PHD’s

41 staff

Yorkshire and Humber North West

Including:

MediWales

Database Over

48,000 contacts

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Twitter followers Over

13,500

UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

LinkedIn group members Over

3,290

Regional offices

South West

East Midlands West Midlands

South East Health Technology Alliance

UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

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Med-Tech Innovation Expo Med-Tech Innovation Expo is the UK and Ireland’s leading showcase for medical technology and innovation – it is the only event that serves the whole of the £27bn UK and Irish medical technology sector.

The two-day event brings together stakeholders from across the medical and healthcare sectors to source products, explore new ideas, understand emerging technologies and talk to over 150 companies representing the supply chain from the ideation stage, through design and validation to manufacture.

Med-Tech Innovation Expo is a business platform where advanced design and manufacturing solution providers are connected to a medical and healthcare OEM audience eager to source solutions to their latest challenges.

There is no better way to evaluate technology than seeing it in the flesh, and the Med-Tech Innovation Exhibition offers unparalleled access to the tools needed for realising ideas across medical device product development, engineering and manufacturing projects. The exhibition brings together packaging, medical electronics, medical plastics, design, sterilisation, components, manufacturing equipment and services under one roof.

The centrepiece Med-Tech Innovation Conference enhances the show floor experience with a world class programme that delivers insights, intelligence and education from a wide range of blue chip users, government officials and industry experts. Innovators of the medical industry will take to the stage to inspire and educate in equal measure.

New at the 2017 event is the Med-Tech Introducing Stage, where speakers from exhibiting companies and their partners will show their latest innovations and applications across the two days of the event. Exhibitors large and small will present, making the Introducing Stage an efficient way of getting up to speed with what is new at the show.

A growing and aging population means continual growth for the medical device sector, which is why supply contracts to this industry are so treasured. Med-Tech Innovation Expo brings medical device industry connections alive, and provides a unique platform to service existing relationships as well as win new contracts.

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Medilink UK Healthcare Business Awards The best of the UK’s Life Sciences and Healthcare Technology sector will be crowned at the 2017 Medilink UK Awards. The Awards celebrate the pinnacle of new technologies, outstanding business achievements and international success across the sector throughout the past year.

The 2017 finalists are: Innovation:

Datalink Electronics Medilink East Midlands Neem Biotech MediWales Elucigene Diagnostics Medilink North West Creavo Medical Technologies Medilink West Midlands 365 Response Medilink Yorkshire & Humber Chemviron Cloth Division Medilink North East Micrima Medilink South West Lightpoint Medical SEHTA

Export:

Datalink Electronics Medilink East Midlands Dynamic Extractions MediWales Vernacare Medilink North West Sheffield Precision Medical Medilink Yorkshire & Humber Associated Dental Products Medilink South West Noxbox SEHTA

Collaboration with the NHS: Personal Care Packs Medilink East Midlands Rocialle MediWales Sky Medical Technology Medilink North West Idox Medilink West Midlands i-HEART: Barnsley Healthcare Federation Medilink Yorkshire & Humber

Ultramed Medilink South West Medcura Technologies SEHTA

Start-up:

Pym’s Consultancy Medilink East Midlands PulmonIR MediWales Aptus Clinical Medilink North West Creavo Medical Technologies Medilink West Midlands Attigo CIC Medilink Yorkshire & Humber JimJam Healthcare Medilink North East Pertinax Pharma Medilink South West Oxford Heartbeat SEHTA

Outstanding achievement: XenoGesis Medilink East Midlands Sharp Clinical Services MediWales Crawford Healthcare Medilink North West The Binding Site Medilink West Midlands Tissuemed Medilink Yorkshire & Humber QuantuMDx Medilink North East Hydrate for Health Medilink South West Xim SEHTA

CELEBRATING CLINICAL PROGRESS AND INNOVATION

Why attend?

Cardiff 21st June 2017 ●

●

300 AT T E N D E E S

58%

33%

9%

CLINICAL

INDUSTRY

POLICY / GOVERNMENT

Types of delegate: Senior management

Clinicians from:

Emergency care

Primary care Chief executives

Social care Procurement

Welsh Health Board/ Trust Map: Betsi Cadwaladr Hywel Dda

Other organisations:

Secondary care

“Impressed by number and range of participants and attendees, well done for organising such a successful conference” Judith Paget, Chief Executive, Aneurin Bevan UHB

Powys Teaching Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Cwm Taf Aneurin Bevan Cardiff and Vale Velindre

NHS ProcurementShared services Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust

“Really great conference, every single NHS Wales board/trust involved” Ifan Evans, Head of Healthcare Innovation, Welsh Government

Social care Public Health Wales Welsh Blood Service Health & Care Research Wales

“An outstanding day - well organised, excellent speakers and interesting exhibitors" Chris Shilling, Innovation Vizier, Phoreon NV

For further information email:

connects-nhs@mediwales.com www.mediwales.com/connects-nhs

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T HE L IFE SCIENCE NE T WORK FOR WA L ES

DELIVERED BY

CONFERENCE 2017 CA R D I F F 5 t h D E C E M B E R

Medtech & Diagnostics

BioPharma

Embrace the best of the UK’s Health technology sector Over 300 delegates come together to understand critical strategic trends that will impact on their businesses. The event offers the latest insights from key opinion leaders as well as a unique opportunity to engage with industry, UK regulatory, the clinical community, procurement and funding bodies. Attracting delegates from 20 countries and four continents, this valuable day of briefings and networking has global impact and excellent export opportunities.

Healthcare

With 45 exhibitor spaces, UK HealthTech provides an excellent opportunity to showcase the strength and innovation of the life science and healthcare communities. During the day, you will be able to visit the exhibition to meet leading companies and key opinion leaders from the academic and clinical communities, specialising in medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, across research, manufacturing and healthcare delivery.

Listen to expert speakers, explore the exhibition and embrace excellent networking opportunities at UK HealthTech 2017.

Visit www.ukhealthtech.com or contact isabelle.perkins@mediwales.com, +44 (0)29 2047 3456

Top University in Wales Y Brifysgol Orau yng Nghymru Swansea University has worked with large and small organisations for almost 100 years. We listen to industry and can help your organisation by providing: Mae Prifysgol Abertawe wedi gweithio â sefydliadau mawr a bach am bron i 100 mlynedd. Rydym yn gwrando ar y diwydiant a gallwn gynorthwyo eich sefydliad drwy ddarparu:

Access to Talent Mynediad at Ddoniau Access to Skills Mynediad at Sgiliau Access to Technology and Research Expertise Mynediad at Dechnoleg ac Arbenigedd Access to Facilities Mynediad at Gyfleusterau

www.swansea.ac.uk/business-and-industry www.swansea.ac.uk/cy/busnes

Find out how we can help your business: 01792 606060 business.enquiries@swansea. ac.uk I ddysgu sut allwn helpu eich busnes

London, May 31st, 2017 Now entering its 14th year, AngloNordic continues to grow and gives you the opportunity to meet decision makers representing leading and upcoming R&D companies, international pharmaceuticals and investment firms.

Attend for close and focused interaction with R&D companies in the biotech and medical technology sectors. Investment pitches are interspersed with plenary sessions and panel discussions.

The conference starts the evening before (May 30th) with a drinks and canapes reception, and is free of charge to all delegates.

Sponsor or exhibit For more information download the All You Need to Know brochure from the conference website, or to express an interest, email the conference team: conference@anglonordiclifescience.com

Partner Meeting MojoTM global partnering software enables participants to select the most suitable potential partners.

The online booking system allows you to browse profiles, request meetings, set your own availability and promote your company to best advantage.

Pitch Applications for investment pitches are open to medtech and biotech R&D companies. For information and to apply for a presentation please first apply for an invitation to attend at the website.

The conference has a “by-invitation-only� policy.

Service suppliers can attend as sponsors or exhibitors.

Investment companies attend free of charge.

R&D delegates can attend for a fee of ÂŁ400+VAT per delegate.

To attend, partner, pitch, sponsor or exhibit visit

www.anglonordiclifescience.com

N S

@anglonordic bit.ly/2lxBGo4

Enhancement Portable scanner detects brain damage in soldiers The University of Aberdeen is working with the Ministry of Defence’s science and technology laboratory on a portable ultrasound brain scanner which could save soldiers’ lives.

Exposure to blasts and dangerous physical activities put soldiers more at risk of traumatic brain injury than the rest of us. However, this type of injury often goes unnoticed in the field, with visible physical damage getting priority for treatment, and is not recognised until it begins to cause more serious problems later on.

CT and MRI scanners are large, heavy and certainly not suitable for the supply pack of a combat medic.

Although ultrasound scanners are not typically used to identify brain damage, as CT and MRI scanners have better resolution, they do have the advantage of being portable.

The lightweight, laptop-sized ultrasound scanner with software developed by the University of Aberdeen has the potential to be used by medics with no formal training in diagnosing brain injuries. The device uses a movement sensor attached to an ultrasound probe to track the brain scan recorded from points on the skull where the bone is thinnest, showing the extent of the scan coverage. It records up to 40 ultrasound images per second and takes thousands of these to create a detailed 3D image of the brain. This is then sent to experts for quick analysis and diagnosis.

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

If unseen brain damage is left untreated, it can lead to life-changing complications over time, which vary from person to person. Cognitive changes as a result of traumatic brain injury can affect anything from a person’s memory and personality to their ability to move and communicate.

With limited access to medical devices and facilities in the field, innovations that make health technology more portable and easy to use can have a huge impact.

Many military medics already have lightweight ultrasound machines at their disposal, so the University of Aberdeen’s new brain scanning software would simply be added to their systems.

Whereas people who have suffered concussion typically get examined for signs of brain injury afterwards, soldiers are not always afforded the same luxury. If brain injuries go undetected, soldiers remain on the front line and suffer repeated injuries, which can lead to far greater problems. Detection helps determine who needs time to rest and heal before repeat deployment.

Aside from use in the military, it is thought that the portable brain scanner could also be deployed in remote communities that are located far from well-equipped hospitals, and could even be used by medical personnel attending emergency trauma situations, such as car accidents, where fast action is needed.

www.abdn.ac.uk

Brain stimulation combats stress Brain scientists and psychologists at Swansea University are developing a new technique to reduce the impact of stress on mood and help improve emotional wellbeing. The research has attracted international interest, with the online paper being viewed across the globe.

Stressful situations can lead to irritability, agitation and moodiness. When facing stressful events, the frontal regions of the brain are particularly active and constantly appraise the positive or negative emotions that are generated, shaping how we react to situations.

Over time, the negative impact of stressors build up and physical and emotional wellbeing may be compromised.

Using his understanding of this, Dr Frederic Boy, who is leading the research at Swansea University, questioned whether the impact of stress on the brain of a nondepressed individual could be reduced.

active stimulation gradually reported having experienced less negative mood states in the past day. Participants in the placebo group did not report notable changes in mood.

Dr Boy said: “Advances in transcranial electrical stimulation techniques mean we are able to investigate different clinical and non-clinical people and specific areas of the human brain to see how those regions regulate people’s behaviour. What was clear is that the way people behave results from a complex interaction between a number of genetic, social and environmental factors.”

The number of young people in the UK prescribed anti-depressants increased by more than 50% between 2005 and 2012.

Dr Boy hopes that a device delivering this treatment will empower the population to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing, and that this research can assist in the treatment of low mood without the need for medication.

Silicon Valley, New York and Washington.

This is of global significance. This could absolutely change people’s lives. We are starting further research on whether this form of brain stimulation could also provide relief in ailments such as low back pain or migraine.”

Dr Boy and Sian Roderick are both directors of the emerging life science firm NeuroTherapeutics. Moving forward, the researchers hope their findings will be translated into a product by Magstim, a medical devices firm based in West Wales.

Swansea University is part of ARCH, A Regional Collaboration for Health.

The ARCH partners are working to use innovation and research to drive health service improvements and have included this research in their transformational approach.

www.swansea.ac.uk

Dr Boy added: “The interest into this work has been overwhelming. We have had views from

Dr Boy and fellow academic Sian Roderick have developed their research by employing weak electrical impulses to stimulate the frontal cortex by placing electrodes on the top of the head. The technique is simple and the stimulation is subtle, with the process only lasting for a short period.

The scientists studied 66 healthy young women, with no history of psychiatric disorders or substance dependence. The volunteers filled in questionnaires to help assess different aspects of their current mood before undergoing a course of short brain electrical stimulation sessions for five days. A total of 22 individuals received an ineffective, but realistic, placebo stimulation, with the remaining 44 being administered a real, active stimulation.

Over the duration of the research, the team found that the volunteers who received

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Using data to understand the needs of the elderly As people age, they begin to experience functional decline, which is the inability to complete activities of daily living (‘ADLs’). Social care departments across the UK have an eligibility threshold and are not obligated to fund interventions until this threshold has been met. In addition, many local authorities do not have enough money to help everyone who needs assistance but does not quite meet the eligibility threshold. As a result of all this, people are experiencing functional decline more quickly, and it is becoming expensive to intervene when these people do actually qualify for assistance.

The elderly need increasing amounts of help from others as their difficulties accrue, with many eventually needing full-time care. This often involves a poorer quality of life in terms of their health, social life and so on, as well as monetary costs too. The most costeffective time to intervene would actually be before these people have

Over 6,000 years of Allied Healthcare Professional experience is embedded in ADL Smartcare’s selfhelp tool, giving residents the opportunity to access professional quality assessments and advice for over 150 areas of need.

When combined with cutting-edge research from Newcastle University (where ADL Research is based), the company has the ability to provide insight on many aspects of ageing, and the impact and consequences for residents and local authorities.

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

reached the levels of dependency that make them eligible for state help.

ADL Smartcare is helping social care departments to understand where their residents are on their ageing journey, enabling them to map appropriate, timely and cost-effective interventions for the relevant stages. They’re also helping people to help themselves, maintain their independence and live longer with a better quality of life.

By equipping people with the knowledge to confidently help themselves (or help friends and family members) to slow functional decline, ADL Smartcare’s products and services can help the public sector focus their resources on those who are most in need, whilst promoting the importance of early intervention.

The insight can allow for predictions about potential influxes of residents into certain services, and enable local authorities to analyse gaps in their services and enlist the help of third sector or private sector organisations.

The traditional approach of sending someone into a person’s home to complete an assessment can disrupt a culture of self-help. This approach is also not sustainable given the limited professional and financial resources

available, along with the extraordinary growth in the numbers of elderly people surviving into late old-age.

ADL Smartcare is helping a number of social care and now health partners to effectively reach people early in their decline and help them to help themselves, without resorting to traditional services unless it’s truly necessary.

Careful statistical analysis of data is providing unique insights into the reality of ageing, which can help foresee future service demands, and identify in the long-term the interventions that are most effective at the population level.

This can be invaluable for the public, private and charitable sectors. ADL Research based at Newcastle University is developing analysis tools to provide the necessary insight to support organisations wishing to help the elderly have healthier lives for longer.

www.sehta.co.uk www.adlsmartcare.com

Enhancement

Compound Cloud: screening libraries for drug discovery In 2016, compound management company BioAscent launched Compound Cloud, an online small molecule library service catering to the drug discovery world.

Organisations involved in the search for new drugs need a range of small molecules to test against biological assays. In the past, these organisations were faced with either creating their own compounds, which is costly and time-consuming, or buying fixed sets of compounds in large amounts, inevitably leading to wastage.

Compound Cloud can significantly enhance early-stage drug discovery as it enables easy online selection and ordering of targeted or diverse collections containing IP-free, highquality chemicals for screening. It applies the cloud-computing concept to early-stage drug discovery by allowing scientists to remotely pick and choose specific compounds of interest from BioAscent’s collection and then have them quickly prepared and delivered for immediate use. It removes the need to expend resources acquiring and managing a compound collection, so compound screening through Compound Cloud becomes remarkably time- and cost-efficient.

The technology gives customers the opportunity to have complete control over the content and format of their compound library. Customers can choose the compounds, concentration, volume and plate format required to fit their assay specifications. This eliminates wastage and reduces the issues associated

with storage and management.

Researchers can start by downloading the structures in all the Compound Cloud collections at no cost for virtual screening. If a promising structure or fragment has already been identified, the service can generate a library of structurally similar compounds which can then be ordered.

This flexibility is enabled by a stateof-the-art compound management facility run by a range of highly skilled management, scientists and technicians with extensive experience managing specialist compound libraries. It offers the safe and secure storage of customer compound collections, in addition to formatting and worldwide logistics.

BioAscent’s Compound Cloud has seen a surge in demand over late 2016 and early 2017 with three-quarters of orders coming from overseas markets including Europe, China and the USA. In addition to the 125,000+ drug-like compound collection available to researchers, BioAscent Discovery has entered into agreements with a range of firms to add unique thirdparty collections to Compound Cloud, with several more due to be added throughout 2017. From fragments to

targeted and diverse sets, Compound Cloud is fast becoming the complete marketplace for screening libraries.

“Compound Cloud was created after gathering extensive feedback from our customers. It provides simple, rapid and flexible access to quality compound libraries for drug discovery. It will allow customers to have complete control over their compound library, using our library as if it were their own.”

Simon MacKenzie CEO BioAscent

Glenn Crocker, Chief Executive of BioCity Group added: “Around 35% of early stage drug discovery projects in both industry and academia fail at the hit stage due to the poor structural properties of the compounds found through biological testing, which means there is no value to progressing these any further. This can be hugely frustrating for all involved, after what can be years of biological work. Compound Cloud is an exciting development which will help improve companies’ chances of drug discovery success, which is good news not just for the companies but for healthcare in general.”

www.compoundcloud.com www.bioascent.com

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

BBI Solutions is a leading developer and manufacturer of raw materials and finished test platforms for the in vitro diagnostics market. The company has been serving the diagnostics industry for over 50 years, creating and supplying medical devices and accessories that are used to detect infections, diseases and medical conditions.

BBI’s head office is in Cardiff, with three other UK bases and manufacturing sites across the globe. 90 per cent of the company’s £34 million sales are generated outside of the UK and, as a result of growing sales in China (up by 59 per cent) and investment in its USA office, BBI Solutions won the Export category at Insider Media’s 2016 Made in the UK Awards.

In addition to manufacturing and supplying products around the world, BBI Solutions performs in-house immunoassay development. Its scientists are committed to finding and developing the latest technologies to improve assay performance, from the raw materials that make up an assay to the end-user experience. The company has also recently launched Morffi™ signal enhancement technology, which has the potential to increase the speed and sensitivity of lateral flow immunoassays (LFIs).

To improve the performance of an LFI, a blocking agent is bound to unoccupied conjugation sites on the reporter label, preventing non-specific binding. However, the most commonly used blocking agent, BSA (bovine serum albumin), has issues with crossreactivity and lot-to-lot variation. Its

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Improving the performance of simple diagnostic tests

LFIs offer accessible, lowcost diagnostics, providing simple tests that can be performed by almost anyone, not just skilled laboratory staff. They rely on the interaction between the analyte of interest and an immobilised binding partner, such as an antibody, antigen or enzyme.

relatively large size can also negatively affect the detection of the target molecule.

BBI’s novel technology, developed entirely in house, is designed to overcome these issues. Due to its size in comparison to BSA, Morffi improves the availability of analyte-specific binding partners on the surface of the reporter label, increasing the signal intensity and sensitivity of the assay.

Issues with cross-reactivity are eliminated, and the availability of the

binding partner on the label surface is increased, resulting in a 10-fold increase in sensitivity. With stronger signals generated, less analyte is required for detection, so results can be achieved up to four times faster.

This allows LFIs using Morffi to better compete with existing laboratorybased tests.

The technology has been successfully tested with several conjugates to date, demonstrating its suitability for a wide range of LFIs. Its simplicity means that it can be easily integrated into an existing test without the need for complicated redevelopment.

Morffi was officially launched in November 2016 at Medica TradeShow in Düsseldorf, and is now available as part of BBI’s lateral flow test development service.

www.bbisolutions.com

Enhancement

New initiative for type 2 diabetes treatment With intensive control and selfmanagement, people with type 2 diabetes can dramatically reduce their risk of developing long-term complications, such as vision loss and kidney failure. However, many struggle to commit, for one reason or another, to making the lifestyle changes that are often necessary to manage their condition.

A new EU-funded initiative is set to tackle this issue in areas of the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The DWELL (Diabetes and WELLbeing) project is headed up by The Health and Europe Centre, which has its headquarters in Kent, along with four other Kent-based partners: Canterbury Christ Church University, The Blackthorn Trust, Medway Community Healthcare and Kent County Council.

Also involved are France’s Hospital Centre of Douai, Belgium’s Artevelde University College, and Kinetic Analysis in the Netherlands.

The DWELL project will focus on providing type 2 diabetes sufferers with individual, tailored support to help them better understand and manage their condition. Rather than giving standard medical advice, professionals will conduct one-to-one interviews and take a more holistic approach to identify what is needed to really get through to each person and motivate them to make long-term lifestyle changes.

choose from various options in each core element, e.g. swimming, dancing or walking as a physical activity. Another important part of the DWELL project

“DWELL will co-create a 12-week patient support programme of ‘pick and mix’ options and a training package for staff to help them deliver the programme in the years ahead. Both products will be designed by, and implemented in, all four countries represented in the partnership, making them highly transferable to other countries also looking for solutions to this common issue. Through this project we want to try new ways of working to empower individuals to be in control of their condition. The programme will provide individuals and professionals with skills and tools to effectively manage diabetes and support people with diabetes to live life to its full.”

will be an evaluation process to benefit future staff and patients.

As a result of improving the long-term health and wellbeing of patients with type 2 diabetes, it is estimated that the DWELL project will see a 30% per person reduction to state-funded health services per year, as well as a 10% reduction in GP appointments per year. Other positive outcomes of the project are anticipated to be reduced blood sugar levels and weight loss among the participants.

Funding for the DWELL project comes from the EU Interreg 2 Seas Programme 2014-2020 (a European Territorial Cooperation Programme covering England, France, the Netherlands and Belgium) which has committed £1.6m to support it over four years.

www.healthandeuropecentre.nhs.uk

Andrew Scott-Clark Director of Public Health Kent County Council

More than 1,000 people with type 2 diabetes (who are having difficulties managing their condition) will participate in the 12-week DWELL programme and have access to a patient-led support network after it ends. The programme is set to include a range of core elements such as type 2 diabetes education, nutritional advice, mental coaching and physical activities.

Participants will have the freedom to

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Future watch Using 3D cameras to measure and monitor wounds Health technology company GPCSL has developed software which uses 3D photographs to more accurately assess the size of wounds and ulcers.

the chance to more easily defend their decisions, as well as contributing to the move towards digital, paperless healthcare.

The traditional method of measuring wounds is to use a ruler or simply judge by sight, but this practice lacks consistency and precision. Inadequate wound surveillance can lead to diagnostic errors and mismanagement, making the healing process longer and more difficult than it needs to be.

Another advantage of using a 3D camera for wound measurement is that it makes the process less invasive, as it eliminates any need to actually touch the wound and therefore keeps it sterile. Disturbing a wound or ulcer can have a negative impact on the healing process, even if done by a professional.

In recent years, 3D cameras have been implemented for facial recognition and gaming, and GPCSL is now exploring how this technology could revolutionise the way wounds and ulcers are managed. The company’s software uses 3D photographs to measure wounds not just by width and length, but also by depth, producing a more detailed picture than traditional methods can provide.

Standardising wound measurement with this software would leave less room for inconsistencies and human error, enabling practitioners to more effectively track a wound’s development over time and make more informed treatment decisions.

Storing a bank of consistent, in-depth images would also give practitioners

The software is currently being tested in collaboration with Abertawe Bro Mogannwg University Health Board (ABMU) and the Pressure Ulcer Prevention and Intervention Service (PUPIS), which is a specialist service to aid the core care team of people with pressure ulcers in Swansea, Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot.

In the first phase of testing, it has been established that the 3D camera and the software are able to deliver high-quality images and accurate measurements, which can then be used to assess at what rate a pressure ulcer is healing.

The next step is to explore how the technology can be deployed in a care home setting. A key challenge in Wales,

It is estimated that the management and treatment of pressure ulcers costs the NHS £2 billion per year, which is around £2,300 per patient per ulcer. A new system that more accurately, safely and efficiently measures ulcers could improve healing rates, prevent deterioration and ultimately reduce hospital admissions.

and certain other areas of the UK too, is dealing with patients who live in remote areas. People with pressure ulcers require frequent monitoring, so that practitioners can get a good impression of how the ulcer is developing and advise accordingly. Although care home workers can administer dressings, the responsibility of measuring and analysing the pressure ulcers falls with the specialists.

GPCSL’s software is intended to be easy to use, and the upcoming second phase will put this to the test. The aim is to determine if care home workers can use the 3D camera to capture images of wounds and then send the data to PUPIS nurses for analysis. If it is indeed simple for non-specialists such as care home workers to use the technology, specialists will be able to make treatment decisions remotely and save time, meaning they can be better deployed elsewhere.

Swansea-based GPCSL has a background in eHealth innovation and clinical analytics. The independently owned company is working to better utilise consumer technology for healthcare, and aims to produce tools that clinicians want to use because they improve results and efficiency.

www.gpcsl.com

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Future watch

Bringing space-age technology to wound treatment Fourth State Medicine (4SM) is a University of Surrey spin-out company that uses an infusion of physics, chemistry, microbiology and engineering to create innovations in the medical sector.

4SM has worked closely with experts across a range of disciplines to develop technology for the cosmetic industry and breakthroughs in wound treatment and non-invasive cosmetic surgery. The company’s platform is inspired by their experiences creating space technology which uses plasma - the ‘fourth state of matter’ after solids, liquids and gases.

Developed through collaboration between academics and clinicians, the proprietary atmospheric plasma technology builds on decades of research at the cutting edge of space technology and utilises this in a clinical setting.

Plasma is an ionised gas, which consists of a mixture of freely moving electrons and ions. Plasmas can be found in a variety of natural physical phenomena such as the aurora borealis, lightning strikes, and the Earth’s sun. 4SM’s technology controls the properties of plasma and supplies a combination of chemistry and energy to sterilise and deactivate bacteria, heal wounds and stimulate the body to create subdermal collagen.

Usually, cosmetic surgery uses lasers to create effects such as skin tightening.

This invasive treatment creates holes in the skin. By breaking the skin, the chance of infection increases. In contrast, plasma technology does not break the skin. With the skin remaining intact, healing takes place quickly after the treatment. The platform uses electric and magnetic fields to tear off the electrons from the atoms of an inert gas to form plasma. This can be used to blast away fine lines and wrinkles on the surface of the skin, and sterilise nasty bugs without degrading tissue.

The non-invasive technique offers a quicker, easier, safer and more conservative alternative to existing technologies, causing less pain and discomfort for the patient.

The hand-held plasma device is simple, intuitive to use and easy to handle for the clinician. It can treat very small regions, focusing on a single area of concern, with applications ranging from wrinkle removal and fine line reductions, treatment of chronic wounds, and could be used for traumarelated operations like managing acute bleeding.

The company created links with clinics and practitioners from the earliest stages of development. Working closely with surgeons, 4SM was able to integrate their feedback into the product’s development to refine its ergonomics as well as how much energy should be used during cosmetic treatments.

“Plasma medicine could change the way the world does plastic surgery.

We have had significant results across a range of histopathology studies and microbiology evaluation, which demonstrates a high level of efficacy across our commercial applications.”

Dr Tom Frame Co-founder and CEO 4SM

Fourth State Medicine aspires to become a global player in the supply of plasma technologies. The medical applications transcend international boundaries and can translate into global markets. The technology lends itself to various business models which can be tailored to suit the specific needs of the regional healthcare system.

For the future, the company hopes to explore options for partnering with the defence industry to use its skills in the areas of sterilisation, wound care and reconstructive surgery in war-torn countries, at aid camps and on the frontline.

www.fourthstatemedicine.co.uk

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Data analysis to recognise early signs of Alzheimer’s Cloud-based data analysis platform AnalytiXagility, the brainchild of Scottish informatics firm Aridhia, has been selected for use in a new Alzheimer’s dementia research project, joining a growing number of studies utilising the platform to gain a greater understanding of the disease and develop new interventions. Covering the UK, Ireland and Europe, these panEuropean projects have the potential to revolutionise the way we recognise and treat Alzheimer’s.

investigate new treatments that could prevent or delay the onset of clinical symptoms in people at risk.

The AnalytiXagility platform is delivering a flexible analytic working environment to underpin EPAD’s multi-

Chris Roche, Aridhia’s CEO, said: “Alzheimer’s dementia is a brutally progressive disease. It is crucial that we gain a better understanding of the early stages, to help us discover which treatments can slow down or even stop the symptoms. We’re tremendously

In the UK, the Deep and Frequent Phenotyping project, funded by the National Institute of Health Research and the Medical Research Council, will investigate whether combining the results from multiple clinical tests can help to better detect early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. The £6.9 million study will recruit 250 volunteers from existing population cohorts via the Dementias Platform UK. Volunteers will undergo a series of clinical tests, at multiple time intervals, including new tests that are not currently used to detect dementia.

The tests include monitoring people’s movement using wearable devices, and sophisticated retinal imaging techniques to examine subtle changes affecting the brain’s visual system.

Researchers will bring this huge data set together for analysis in Aridhia’s platform.

The European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD) consortium brings together 36 organisations across Europe to to drive research into dementia prevention. Part of the Innovative Medicines Initiative, EPAD is a game-changing collaboration between academic, pharma and public health bodies aimed at identifying the warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease that are present in mid-life. These signs may help predict which people are likely to develop dementia in later life, and

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

centre longitudinal cohort study. This aims to create a virtual Europe-wide register of around 24,000 people, some of whom will be selected to join a cohort which will see them undergo regular health checks, including blood tests and brain scans, and track their critical thinking skills over time. A number of these participants will subsequently be given the chance to participate in clinical trials of new and existing medicines that could delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s dementia.

Over in Ireland, the Moneta Research project sees a multidisciplinary team from across Asystec NI Ltd, Ulster University and the Clinical Translational Research and Innovation Centre battle dementia using big data analytics. AnalytiXagility is being used to enable the collaborative analysis of the project’s large complex and heterogeneous datasets.

proud to bring AnalytiXagility to these projects as a strong collaborative platform in which to pool their data, background research, expertise and previous findings in a controlled and secure way. This will ultimately help develop new understandings of the illness and how it can be managed and treated.”

Headquartered in Glasgow, Aridhia has delivered its data analytics platform, AnalytiXagility, to innovative research projects around the world since 2014.

The company develops technology that offers research, healthcare and precision medicine communities access to the powerful analytic capabilities required to translate clinical research into mainstream clinical practice.

www.aridhia.com

Future watch

Dementia trials at Plymouth Science Park Worldwide nearly 44 million people have Alzheimer’s or a related form of dementia.

Most people associate dementia with memory loss, but the condition can have a wide variety of effects, including changes in behaviour, confusion and disorientation, delusions and hallucinations, and difficulty communicating.

A groundbreaking research facility at Plymouth Science Park has now been open for a year and is helping to deliver clinical trials for new drugs that are needed for this condition. The last approved treatment for Alzheimer’s disease was over 17 years ago.

Re-Cognition Health has converted a unit in Plymouth Science Park into a suite of treatment rooms dedicated to dementia research. This unit is now actively recruiting patients, and treating patients suffering from Alzheimer’s with innovative treatments under development.

Dr. Stephen Pearson, Research Lead at Re-Cognition Health, has been working on Alzheimer’s clinical trials for ten years.

He is excited by the new trials that are opening and is hopeful that a disease modifying treatment will now be found.

He says that patients find it very positive to be part of new drug development which they themselves are able to access as part of being enrolled in trials.

For all new drug trials, patients are divided into groups to assess whether the treatment works, with one group taking the drug and the other group taking a placebo. Neither the patients nor the researchers will know which treatment each individual is taking until the trial is over. This is necessary to be able to show any possible treatment effect.

Plymouth Science Park is unique in that it offers offices and laboratories for companies with anything from one person to 200+ people. The park provides business advice for tenant companies and offers a plethora of services such as HR and PR to help organisations grow. The campus is set in 25 wooded acres in the heart of Devon, just 10 minutes from the centre of Plymouth.

“We are delighted that Re-Cognition Health chose to set up their South West arm here on Plymouth Science Park. I know that our high quality office and laboratory space with flexible terms, our close proximity to Derriford Hospital and Plymouth’s position as centre of the UK’s Peninsula were key concerns in their decision making process. The ethos of Plymouth Science Park is job creation through business growth in the Science and Technology sector and this is exactly what Re-Cognition Health are doing through their ground breaking research into Alzheimer’s treatments.

Not only do their trials offer hope for sufferers of dementia, they are also creating new, exciting and fulfilling jobs right here in Plymouth.”

Merika Kindlon Commercial Executive Plymouth Science Park

www.re-cognitionhealth.com www.plymouthsciencepark.com

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Oncology vest for ‘a life more normal’ Liverpool-based medical innovation company Tookie has commenced a six-month evaluation study with Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, in which the Tookie Vest for Oncology will be tested with a group of children, parents and carers.

The Tookie Vest for Oncology is potentially life-saving for children and adults receiving cancer treatment, as it provides patients with improved confidence to move around without dislodging their central line, whilst reducing the concerns of parents and carers.

The vest maintains the integrity of the Central Venous Catheter, keeping it secure by containing the catheter within the vest and its pouch. It was developed through consultations with clinical teams, academics, patients and their parents/carers.

Designed for comfort, the vest is made from warp spacer material which is 100% polyester and coated with an antibacterial agent. The material is non-flammable and can be washed at high temperatures with no detriment to its properties. The health benefits of Tookie are broad, with the fundamental ethos of enabling patients to live with increased normality, freedom and independence.

The Tookie Vest was developed by company Commercial Director Stephen Tooke, in order to provide a solution to the needs of patients fitted with a central venous catheter when receiving chemotherapy. It has the ultimate goal of allowing patients to live ‘A Life More Normal’.

www.tookie.co

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Mr Ross J Craigie, a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, said: “As a children’s surgeon, I see first-hand the concerns that parents have around care and security of their child’s central line and also the implications of premature line removal.

The Tookie Vest aims to give both actual line security and also peace of mind to families, something that we have been waiting for in central line care.”

Tookie has been awarded a grant from the Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network to provide a research element of the study to fully investigate clinical benefits of the Tookie Vest for the NHS as a whole.

The company is involved in developing renal, nutrition and respiratory Tookie Vests to suit each patient groups’ needs to support their lines. Additionally, the Tookie Smart Vest features embedded textile biosensors that capture and send vital patient information via Wi-Fi to a smartphone for enhanced patient self-care and monitoring in the home.

“It’s soft, lightweight and easy to wash.

My son finds it comfortable to wear and forgets he’s even wearing it. With him only being three and just starting nursery, we were worried about him playing with the other children and possibly having his brovaic line accidentally pulled, as it just sat in a bag around his neck. Now we will feel much more relaxed. He wears the vest each week to football and it allows him to play and enjoy himself, without having to be afraid of joining in! The vest is invisible under his clothes.”

Mother of a child who wears Tookie

Future watch

The robotic revolution in life sciences As the life sciences industry looks to address today’s production challenges, Neal Welch of Mitsubishi Electric explains how in demanding applications such as the manipulation of live cultures, robots are in a league of their own.

Robots have become an established technology within the industry for precise and efficient processing and packaging of drugs and solutions, and that success is seeing the technology being steadily introduced further upstream, in the processing of live cultures and handling of cell tests.

Helping to automate the research and development stages of new drugs, robots can boost accuracy and repeatability, increase production capacity without increasing floor space, and minimise the need for human intervention in physical production.

As life science companies and institutions look to develop new drugs and treatments, the key challenges when processing vast numbers of live samples and cultures for production and screening applications are volume, accuracy and repeatability. Traditionally, accuracy and repeatability have been very dependent on human skills, while increasing production volume has meant increasing lab floor space.

Lab floor space though comes at a premium, and the requisite numbers of people required in order to ramp up volume also come at a cost. In addition, there are limits on how much people can do and how long they can concentrate and still maintain accuracy and repeatability. Thriving in a highly competitive market depends upon

accelerating time to market, increasing production effectiveness and minimising costs.

With modern, small, articulated robotic technologies able to meet stringent hygiene requirements, whilst becoming easier to integrate and more affordable to purchase, life sciences facilities have the opportunity to dramatically increase production capacity without increasing floor space. Mitsubishi Electric, for example, offers MELFA robots certified

Increasingly used to carry out even very delicate handling tasks, robots enable high cycle rates to be achieved while maintaining a high level of precision, enabling line efficiency to be increased.

There is a reduced need for human intervention in physical production, with the robots taking over tasks that previously would have been physically demanding or manually intensive, and enabling existing personnel to devote time to more value-adding tasks.

for use in ISO class 7 and 8 cleanrooms, with compact designs that provide flexible automation even where space is restricted.

Mitsubishi Electric has recently provided robots for a number of challenging tasks within the life sciences sector that demonstrate robotic advantages.

These include the handling of stem cells, where the robots are delivering a higher degree of repeatability, and an automated primary antibody screening work cell for early stage development of potential new treatments for central nervous system and immunology disorders. The robots in this application are helping to speed up the process of antibody discovery by automating the screening of billions of antibodyproducing B cells.

As the life sciences sector looks to move forward to address production and cost challenges, robotic automation is providing a solution, enabling flexible and efficient production while keeping the space required to a minimum. The ease of integration and the relative cost-competitiveness of today’s robot products, combined with the ability to meet relevant cleanroom class requirements, mean that they offer a compelling argument for automation.

www.mitsubishielectric.com

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Going global International trade success for mortuary equipment manufacturer Nottingham-based LEEC has received the Queen’s Award for International Trade due to a recent boom in its overseas sales. Although the 63 year-old company first made its mark in startof-life science, providing lab equipment and CO2 incubators for IVF cell culturing and stem cell research, it is now finding success in a rather different area too. With a portfolio including body storage solutions, mortuary trolleys, autopsy tables, dissecting benches and embalming stations, LEEC does business with a wide range of hospitals, university departments, crematoriums and funeral directors.

For the mortuary staff handling the post-death process, having the best available equipment is vital in maintaining the highest standards of dignity and care, while also making their job as straightforward as possible. For example, bodies are getting bigger and heavier due to the rise of obesity. The company has therefore upscaled their equipment over time, adapting trolleys to be capable of handling bodies that weigh up to 65 stone (413kg) when the past standard was under half this amount.

The equipment can last 15-20 years if properly maintained, so it is made to not just be fit for purpose today but also to be future-proofed for many years to

come. By introducing equipment that can withstand heavy weights, as well as a tray transfer system that eliminates the need for physically lifting bodies, the health and safety of mortuary staff is significantly improved.

LEEC won the Queen’s Award after working with UK Trade and Investment to find new overseas markets and securing an increasing number of international contracts. Over the past four years, their exports have grown from two percent of revenue to 60 percent.

The company has completed several projects in Ghana and got a contract with Ghent University, Belgium, thanks to their work involving the Thiel embalming process – a new way of preparing bodies for dissection that maintains the physical attributes. They are currently delivering a project to Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, which is in excess of £1 million, working with Canada and continuing growth in the Russian Federation.

Their range of laboratory equipment, which includes C02 Incubators, is also expanding throughout the world and most recently into several sites in the US such as Harvard University.

Every country has its own culture and traditions, so for an issue as sensitive as death, new challenges have arisen.

Richard Venners of LEEC commented: “Mortuary staff would usually be able to open the refrigerated cabinet used to store bodies for maintenance purposes, but in Hong Kong religious reasons prohibit this, because many people believe that spirits live inside the unit until a ritual has been performed. This meant we had to adapt our cabinet so components could be removed from the outside for servicing. Other manufacturers said ‘you can’t do that’ but we worked with them to find a way of solving the issue. There are so many cultural differences in death.

Some countries embalm and prepare the deceased for viewing, whereas in Singapore they have to be embalmed within 24 hours for spiritual reasons.”

In early 2017, LEEC made it into The Sunday Times SME Export Track 100 League Tables, which lists the British small-medium sized companies with the fastest-growing international sales.

www.leec.co.uk

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Going global

Developing a dialysis machine for Malaysia Design and technology consultancy Renfrew Group International has been working with Lucenxia Malaysia, a subsidiary of Adventa Bhd, to launch the Lucenxia Intellis, an Intelligent Automated Peritoneal Dialysis (APD) cycler designed for patients with chronic kidney disease to be treated at home while they are asleep. The design was developed with the patients in mind, to enhance their quality of life and improve access to treatment.

The Lucenxia Intellis APD cycler seeks to improve accessibility, outcomes, affordability, operational ease and environmental protection, while providing peritoneal dialysis services to chronic kidney disease patients so they can enjoy a better quality of life and continue to work independently, enjoying better mobility and being less bound by haemodialysis services.

APD as a treatment method will help ease the strain on resources in Malaysia, which is currently catering to a rapidly growing number of patients with chronic kidney disease.

More than 90% of patients who undergo dialysis in Malaysia receive haemodialysis treatment, and the average chronic kidney disease patient receives three treatments at haemodialysis centres every week, with each session lasting between three to five hours. Peritoneal dialysis is a lesser-known dialysis treatment in Malaysia, which allows for patients to receive treatment in the comfort of their own home.

Dialysis at home can greatly improve quality of life, which allows patients to regain control and provides benefits for a patient’s physical and mental health.

Unlike in-centre dialysis, Peritoneal dialysis utilises the patient’s peritoneal membrane in their abdomen to remove excess fluid from the body. The treatment is versatile and safe, and can take place at home, at work or while travelling to easily fit around a patient’s daily life. With flexible treatment times, most patients are able to eat a regular diet and continue living a normal life.

The product has full telemedicine functions, including online daily monitoring, early detection, enhanced safety, and automatic configuration through prescription that is administered online.

Renfrew Group International worked with the Malaysian team on improvements to the fluid cassette functionality and manufacture of the product, and to rationalise its packaging and architecture. They developed the overall aesthetic and explored several levels of user-centred design, improving user access to the cassette and the management of various connections between the patient, module and saline reservoirs.

The platform was designed to reduce the vertical profile and accommodate the working and consumable components in the most effective way, both from the user’s point of view and in terms of efficiency of manufacture.

Working in tandem with the Malaysian team, Renfrew also prepared the design of the case, chassis, assembly design, display, interface, DFM, prototype and provided pre-production cases for approval, with the aim of creating a product that can empower patients.

“The design work was conducted over a period of 18 months during which continuous liaison with our Malaysian client and their subcontractors maintained a work-pace in line with an ambitious product introduction timeline.

During the assignment, RGI produced full manufacturing data for the casework which was also used to create ABS moulded prototype parts in the UK.” Bruce Renfrew Creative Director Renfrew Group

www.renfrewgroup.com

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

British and French lab suppliers join forces Scientific Laboratory Supplies began trading in 1991 and has since become the UK’s largest independent provider of laboratory equipment, chemicals and consumables. The company has now formed a partnership with France-based Dominique Dutscher, to the benefit of both parties as well as the consumer.

The union between Scientific Laboratory Supplies, which has its headquarters in Nottingham, and Dominique Dutscher has created the largest independent European distributor of lab supplies, with around €180 million of combined revenue.

Similarities are what caused the two businesses to join forces. They’re both independent companies who pride themselves on their customer-centric approach. There is also an overlap in some of their suppliers, markets and customers.

Each party must gain something from a partnership in order for it to be worthwhile, and in this case both Scientific Laboratory Supplies and

“SLS has grown significantly over its 25-year history through a solid commitment to people and a tailored, flexible approach to serving our customers. We have done this through remaining fully independent and maintaining a personal touch that marks us out from our global competitors. To be able to extend that same message on a European basis by joining together with such a like-minded organisation is the single most exciting and valuable development in our company’s history.”

Ian Roulstone Sales Director SLS

Dominique Dutscher are benefiting from new opportunities. As a result of the partnership, SLS has access to EU-specific brands, suppliers and technology, while DD gets access to the same in the UK. This increase in the resources available to the two companies allows them to offer a wider product portfolio, which is ultimately beneficial to the consumer.

Knowledge-sharing is an important aspect of any partnership, and a recent best practice review has enabled both businesses to learn from each other’s methods.

Dominique Dutscher has been able to gain new insight into the UK market, while Scientific Laboratory Supplies is learning a great deal about EU customers.

Around the time that the partnership with Dominique Dutscher was revealed, it was also announced that Scientific Laboratory Supplies would be acquiring Analab, a Northern Ireland-based lab supplier. The acquisition took SLS’s UK turnover to £44 million and quickly created new job opportunities.

The Irish life sciences sector is the second largest employer of medical technology professionals in Europe and home to many of the top global medtech companies. A lot of investment is being put into R&D and innovation, which means it’s a market with plenty of potential. This year, the Irish Medical Devices Association published a 2020 strategy to make Ireland the global hub for medical technology, and the Irish government put €5 million into an initiative designed to deepen links between the Irish health service and new technologies.

Scientific Laboratory Supplies have recently launched their new life science catalogue, which is double the size of its predecessor.

“I cannot think of a better team for us to go forward with than the SLS folk.

I have known the key staff for almost 25 years and have watched how they have competed successfully against the major competition to become a very significant player in the UK market. We expect to double Analab sales in the next 12 months.”

Damien McCorry Managing Director Analab

www.scientificlabs.co.uk

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Going global

Orthopaedic implant manufacturer cracks international markets JRI Orthopaedics is a Sheffield-based company with expertise in the design, development and manufacture of orthopaedic implants and surgical instruments. After almost fifty years in business and decades spent exporting to Europe and Australia, they have recently taken their products and know-how to China and Brazil.

In 2015 JRI broke into the Chinese market by securing a contract to produce hip replacement implants for a large, well-established Beijing medical company. The Chinese economy is huge and significant investment is being made in healthcare, which means they have a growing orthopaedic implant market. Although China is a world leader in terms of lowcost manufacturing, Chinese patients now have rising expectations for healthcare and are looking elsewhere in search of innovative, high-quality medical products.

In addition to bringing their manufacturing capabilities to the partnership, JRI have also been sharing their knowledge, and cohorts of Chinese surgeons have visited the Sheffield base to learn more about joint replacements. As a result of their work in China, JRI won the International Trade Award at the North of England Excellence Awards. The company received accreditation to have their own hip replacement products registered in China in November 2016 and the first implantations were successfully made in March.

In parallel with their activity in China, JRI also made an international move at the 2016 Brazilian Congress of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, where they launched their VAIOS shoulder replacement system in Brazil.

VAOIS stands for Versatile, Anatomic, Optimised, Inverse, Stable and the system was designed, with the help of biomechanical engineers from Newcastle University and a leading British shoulder surgeon, to address the key challenges associated with shoulder replacement surgery.

One such challenge is the prosthesis loosening and needing to be revised after surgery. The VAOIS system helps improve the success rate and stability of shoulder implants in the long term with features to prevent dislocation, glenoid loosening and more. Consideration has also been given to the practical aspect of shoulder replacement for surgeons, as the VAIOS system requires 60% fewer component parts and surgical instruments.

Brazil is a developing market, with healthcare spending on the rise and a relatively young population, meaning there could be a lot of future potential. JRI’s expansion into Brazil was several years in the making, and they found a route to market by joining forces with a strong distribution partner.

Jerry Agass, JRI’s Joint Managing Director, said: “Finding success in international markets is not just about having an excellent product. It’s also about delivering medical education and

training so that the product can be used to its full potential, as well as establishing strong partnerships and trust with in-market distributors. JRI isn’t a huge global corporation. We’re an SME learning to become less reliant on the UK market and putting in years of work to make it happen.”

www.jri-ltd.com

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Addressing the challenges of global vaccination Vaccines are widely recognised as one of the greatest achievements in public health, yet gaps in vaccine availability and errors in vaccine administration have led to significant morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries. The process of storage, handling, preparation and administration can be complex, and security of the cold chain can be difficult to guarantee.

For conventional vaccines supplied in vials, there are contamination and stability risks associated with the preparation of syringes (‘pre-drawing’).

This is why the use of unit-dose, readyto-administer vaccines is encouraged.

Gaps in vaccination are attributable to multiple factors, including the need for reconstitution of freeze dried vaccines and maintenance of cold storage chains, and the reluctance on the part of healthcare providers to administer vaccines from a multi-dose vial for fear of wastage where insufficient patients are available at the clinic on designated dates. Whilst these issues may seem trivial they are in reality the cause of mass failure of vaccination programs.

It is clear that a vaccine which does not require cold chain handling and which is single-use, unit-dose and ready-to-use, without needing people with specialised training to

administer, would offer a significant step forwards in maximising the benefits of vaccination.

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Over the last decade, microneedle delivery systems, i.e. many smaller needles in the order of hundreds of micrometers in length replacing one large needle, have been investigated as a means to address this pressing clinical need. Both removable needle patches and biodegradable needle systems

UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

have been evaluated. The former were associated with safety concerns, due to the perceived risk of needles not intended to stay in the skin fracturing and remaining in the skin, which led to greater interest in biodegradable systems. However, these present significant challenges, particularly in terms of fabrication as most of the processes are highly complex, requiring many more years of development, optimisation and capital expenditure for mass scale manufacturing.

Loughborough-based Nemaura Pharma have been specialising in drug delivery through the skin for over ten years. One of their technologies has been designed specifically to address the need for vaccine delivery by selfadministration, without a cold chain storage requirement. The system uses microneedles to deliver a defined dose of a drug or vaccine in solid form.

This offers advantages in terms of avoidance of cold chain and simplicity of use. There are also fewer fabrication challenges involved, as it uses stainless steel microneedles, which are manufactured using established fabrication technologies and can be readily massproduced to meet global needs.

Another difference between Nemaura’s microneedle system and others in development is that it allows the drug dosage to be very rapidly delivered, and does not require the patch to be worn on the body for a prolonged period of time.

Nemaura were awarded a grant by the Technology Strategy Board to undertake a proof of concept study in mice to deliver a tetanus vaccine and a diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) vaccine using this novel microneedle system. This vaccine was supplied as a liquid and converted to a dry state by freeze-drying with suitable excipients.

The data obtained from the study showed that solid-dose delivery of tetanus and DTaP vaccines resulted in immune responses. The tetanus study showed a doseresponse effect with some indication of a possible dose-sparing effect when delivery was in the solid form. In addition, the DTaP study demonstrated that the freeze-drying process, which was used to convert the vaccine to a solid form, did not result in any observable loss in potency.

These results have led to the initiation of further vaccine development programs by Nemaura intended to overcome the limitations of current vaccine delivery systems, as well as curtailing the morbidity and mortality associated with them.

www.nemaura.co.uk

Going global

British cooling vest saves lives on Mecca pilgrimage

Every year, millions of Muslims from all over the world attend the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The huge annual event requires a lot of preparation from the Saudi Arabian government, due to the many issues that can arise from so many people being in one place.

The date of the pilgrimage changes each year to follow the lunar Islamic calendar, which means that for the next decade or so, it will move from the relatively cool autumn period into the significantly hotter summer period. As a result, pilgrims will be in more danger of heatstroke than before, so the Saudi Arabian authorities are searching for an effective, easily deployable solution.

CAERvest, a product developed by Brighton-based BodyChillz, was selected to undergo a clinical trial at the 2016 Hajj pilgrimage. This trial was led by a team of doctors from King Abdullah Medical City.

If heatstroke does not receive urgent medical treatment, it can prove fatal.

One effective method of cooling the body down quickly is cold water immersion, but this isn’t readily available in every situation. CAERvest offers an alternative method for rapid body cooling, with features that made it ideal for use on the Hajj pilgrimage.

The polyurethane vest can be activated and applied in under a minute and it then gets to work immediately, reducing core body temperature from a potentially fatal 42°C to safe levels in just a few minutes. It can be used earlier in the treatment protocol than has ever before been possible, and it is therefore able to offer better survival rates and outcomes. The device is single-use, preventing problems with cleaning and cross-contamination. It is also portable, weighing 6.8kg (15lbs), and does not require cables, batteries or refrigeration.

“As a result of CAERvest being employed at the Hajj pilgrimage, lives were saved. We’re now looking to broaden our scope and work with other nations to provide the most effective heatstroke prevention system.”

Jonathan Weinberg Commercial Director BodyChillz

Heatstroke is an issue not just in warmer climates but also for the military, construction, energy, mining and sports sectors where individuals are at the extremes of exertion and can overcome their body’s capacity to cool naturally.

Cooling within five minutes is essential for their organs and has saved the lives of London Marathon runners and British soldiers on overseas training exercises.

In addition to treating heatstroke, CAERvest can also be used on people suffering from cardiac arrest. Paramedics have used various forms of cooling liquids, pre-refrigerated packs and pressurised gases in attempts to reduce tissue damage following a loss of blood perfusion after cardiac arrest.

However, these methods require either expensive kit or preparation that delays the treatment. They can now utilise CAERvest to deliver immediate core body cooling in the critical stage of cardiac arrest treatment, before the patient arrives at the hospital. It lasts more than an hour and does not interfere with CPR or ALS procedures.

BodyChillz specialises in designing, developing and delivering products with innovative technologies that provide cooling to the body when it is most needed and effective.

www.caervest.com

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Meeting the unmet Making urine sample collection easier, cleaner and more reliable Around 65 million urine specimens are collected by the NHS annually, but between 0.38 percent and 70.38 percent can prove unreliable. This points to hit-and-miss treatment across a very common diagnostic process and means that up to two-thirds of patients expecting to be diagnosed from their urine specimen will not be.

Like blood, urine is used for diagnosis and treatment that saves lives; it is one of the most common and influential bodily fluids used to diagnose myriad conditions, infections and diseases. Its use is non-invasive and low-cost. However, many urine samples produce unreliable results and need to be retested. The traditional method of producing a urine sample can also be messy, causing patients to feel uncomfortable and clinical areas to become contaminated.

Many NHS Trusts now sub-contract microbiology to private groups and try to ensure that no mixed growth samples go to these groups, otherwise they will have to pay for a ‘pointless’ sample. Consequently, trusts are developing specimen pathways to screen out samples where mixed growths are likely to be high but not a real concern because the issue is often dehydration – for example, in the case of older people in care homes.

Peezy Midstream can reduce mixed growth to as little as 1.5 percent, making the specimen it collects 98.5 percent accurate. It can therefore save on the implementation of the costly additional pathways mentioned previously. It can also ensure that specimens will not be discarded as ‘pointless’ when they have been requested for a valid reason.

The device was conceived by NHS GP Dr Vincent Forte, when he noticed that a high number of his female patients were making repeat appointments for urinary tract infections which he believed he had already treated. This was because urine specimens had failed to provide accurate results, so he had been unable to make the right diagnoses. Further research proved that this was a problem on a national scale.

A prime contaminator of urine specimens is ‘first-flush’ urine, which can carry debris and bacteria from the skin into a sample, ultimately causing false results. The midstream urine, which comes after the first-flush, gives clinicians a much clearer picture of the patient’s health. With Peezy Midstream, first-flush and midstream urine are separated, as the first-flush gets discarded into the toilet, while the valuable midstream is isolated into a collection tube. Any overflow is also directed straight into the toilet. This delivers a significantly purer sample than traditional methods can, untainted

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by first-flush urine, while reducing the patient’s chances of soiling their hands and other areas.

For prompt diagnosis and treatment, right first-time analysis is vital.

Peezy Midstream enables clinicians to more quickly identify problems and begin dealing with them.

As a result of this improved efficiency, there is less need for repeat appointments and retests, so savings can be made on costs and resources.

Traditional urine collection methods often involve spillage and decanting.

Urine spread onto bottles, hands and toilet environments can pose an infection control risk as urine can carry infections

such as Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, HIV and MRSA. While the NHS urges us all to wash our hands, it is counter-intuitive to allow urine to be collected in ways that can soil and infect them.

Peezy Midstream is currently the only urine collection method that allows the collection of urine to meet Public Health England UK Standards for Microbiology Collection of Urine and other national guidelines. It is available in the UK on the NHS Supply Chain, through Bunzl and other leading distributors.

Forte Medical, the company behind Peezy Midstream, is now exporting it to the USA. The company is also working with leading NHS and other academic health institutes to bring Peezy First Stream and Peezy Stool systems to the market in 2017. These devices will be designed to improve detection of prostate, bladder, cervical, colon and bowel cancer.

www.forte-medical.co.uk

Digitally collecting preoperative data Every patient due to have an operation under general anaesthetic must go through a preoperative assessment. This is traditionally carried out by a nurse, who asks the patient questions and records their answers on a paper form.

MyPreOp is a product created by Ultramed, which allows patients to complete their preoperative assessment online, from the comfort of their own home. The program can be accessed via a computer, tablet or smartphone.

The patient simply sets up an account using their personal details and unique NHS number, then they work their way through the assessment questions.

MyPreOp has a branching clinical algorithm, which means that further questions appear if triggered by certain answers.

Once the assessment is finished, the patient chooses to share the data securely with their preoperative assessment team, including a report that automatically highlights potential areas of concern.

From this information, the clinician can determine whether the patient is low or high risk, and decide what should be done next. The program suggests which, if any, tests are needed in the preparation of the patient for their operation or procedure.

MyPreOp software is cloud-based and designed to integrate easily with existing hospital IT systems and electronic patient

records. No big system overhauls are needed, so quick implementation is possible.

result, the clinician can get a better idea of the patient’s condition and therefore plan more effectively.

By making the data collection component of preoperative assessment a patient activity, savings can be made on hospital time, money and resources. It cuts down on appointments, freeing up physical space and allowing nurses to focus more of their time on key clinical decisionmaking and less of their time on admin.

It also reduces costs for paper, printing, scanning and storage, and helps hospitals on their way to becoming paper-free.

Ultramed have now launched an additional version of the program, called MyPreOp Kids, which collects information relevant to paediatric assessment. Woven into the questions are external web links, which children and parents can follow to learn more about their procedure and general health.

Substituting traditional preoperative assessment with MyPreOp also ensures that fewer resources are wasted. Rather than every patient going through the same process, and sometimes having appointments that aren’t really necessary, low-risk patients can be rapidly screened and reviewed via the online program, while more focus can be given to high-risk patients. This streamlining of the process has the potential to increase the annual number of patients receiving operations.

The use of sophisticated software, instead of a paper form, for preoperative assessment allows richer, more detailed data to be obtained. The fact that patients can complete the assessment in their own time, instead of under pressure in a hospital appointment, also makes their answers more likely to be accurate. As a

The objective of MyPreOp is to provide higher quality data than the traditional method of preoperative assessment can, as well as reducing costs for hospitals and saving time for both clinicians and patients. This could ultimately lead to increased productivity and delivery of better patient care.

MyPreOp is part of the Ultraprep suite of innovative preoperative and preprocedure assessment programs. The latest additions are MyEndo, MyCardio and MyIR which are for patients needing endoscopies, cardiac investigations and interventional radiology procedures.

www.ultramed.co

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Improving the efficiency of cervical examinations Zilico’s pioneering technology that improves the speed and accuracy in diagnosing pre-cancerous conditions of the cervix is now being rolled out across hospitals in the UK. The portable, handheld device known as ZedScan can measure and detect tissue changes in women who have been identified with an abnormal initial screening test – either smear, HPV or visual inspection.

The non-invasive device uses patented Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) technology to detect dysplasia and cancer of the cervix. It consists of a portable handset, docking station, a single-use sensor and software application. After taking 10-12 readings around the cervix, in approximately two to three minutes, it then analyses the underlying tissue structure that identifies disease.

This enables the clinician to make a more informed decision during a patient’s first examination. Appropriate treatment can be offered immediately to women found to have severe abnormalities and reassurance can be provided to patients with no evidence of disease, all whilst reducing the number of biopsies required.

Cervical cancer is caused by the persistent HPV infection, which triggers changes in the cervical cells. Although colposcopy is an important method in detecting high-grade dysplasia to prevent cervical cancer from developing, in practice, the procedure has not drastically changed over the last 90 years. Diagnosis also depends on the subjective assessment by the clinician.

ZedScan has been created to support this clinical need. The non-optical system is designed to supplement the standard colposcopy process and provide reassurance and confirmation for diagnosis. In many cases, the system also identifies any abnormalities that may have been missed in a visual examination.

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust have now adopted ZedScan in the gynaecology departments at both the Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital Stafford.

“ZedScan is extremely easy to use and improves colposcopy practice, making our examinations more accurate and reliable. For hospitals, it also helps to save valuable resources as fewer biopsies are needed and patients can be returned to normal screening much quicker. Patients also like it because it offers them that additional reassurance, so it is a win-win situation for everyone involved.”

Charles Redman Consultant Gynaecologist and President of the European Federation for Colposcopy

Improved patient outcomes and advancements in efficiency have been observed following adoption of the device into routine use.

It has also been announced that ZedScan will be used in a study funded by the IFC in Mumbai, India, which aims to increase early detection and treatment of cervical cancer. There are an estimated 74,000

deaths from cervical cancer annually in India, which accounts for nearly a third of all cervical cancer deaths worldwide.

300 patients are being recruited for the study as part of the TechEmerge programme, which matches proven technologies like ZedScan with leading healthcare providers in emerging markets.

www.zilico.co.uk

Meeting the unmet

Patient monitoring system detects early signs of sepsis Sepsis patients can be diagnosed and treated earlier with the help of new technology available for hospitals and homecare settings.

Healthcare organisations can now use a patient monitoring platform called the Patient Status Engine (PSE) to help doctors and nurses rapidly pick up illness, saving some of the 44,000 lives lost to it each year in the UK. The PSE, developed by Isansys Lifecare, uses vital signs, early warning scores and data analytics to flag up any change in a patient’s condition and alert clinicians to what could be the early onsets of sepsis faster than they would have otherwise been able to detect it.

By acting quickly to diagnose and treat sepsis when it is still in an early stage, the risk of mortality is significantly reduced. Research into critical care by the UK Sepsis Trust has shown that if diagnosed and treated within the first hour, patients have a survival rate of more than 80 per cent. After the sixth hour, however, their chance of survival is only 30 per cent. Therefore the introduction of a better detection system would improve patient safety and lower the number of preventable deaths.

The PSE is a complete end-to-end, CE marked, Class IIa medical device which uses wireless body-worn sensors to automatically collect and analyse vital signs continuously and in real-time, including heart rate, respiration rate, temperature, oxygen saturation, blood pressure and coma (or pain). It helps doctors and nurses to rapidly recognise the symptoms of sepsis. As a result, the new system can save lives and also cut costs for the NHS.

“Changes in a patient’s health status often linked with a sepsis diagnosis include fast breathing, fast heartbeat, change in heart beat pattern and a high or low temperature. Due to the integrated nature of the Patient Status Engine, these parameters are monitored constantly by the platform. If any one of the parameters register at an abnormal level a patient is deemed to be at risk of developing sepsis and the clinician is alerted.

Sepsis is a killer, not because doctors don’t know how to treat it but because the recognition of the condition is complex and often not early enough. By collecting the patient’s vital signs in real-time and continuously, we are proactively driving a response to this problem. This can give doctors and nurses a better chance to diagnose and treat this condition much more quickly which is crucial as the risk of death from sepsis increases with every passing hour it goes untreated.”

Rebecca Weir Co-founder Isansys Lifecare

One of the hospitals Isansys are working with is the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, where it is being used to monitor cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The company is also working with hospitals globally on other clinical applications including monitoring children at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and in Germany helping to enable healthcare professionals transfer patients from intensive care units to normal wards more quickly, or to help prevent patients from being sent to ICU altogether.

www.isansys.com

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UK Lifescience Industry Magazine

Altius catheters reduce risks to patients With over 50 years of experience in vascular access, Kimal has applied feedback from healthcare practitioners on CVCs to develop a revolutionary catheter that addresses the shortcomings of the current technology.

CVC technology has remained virtually unchanged for the last 30 years, and the traditional design does nothing to reduce infection, accidental air embolism, maladministration of drugs or other associated risks. The Altius CVC range incorporates a number of features to reduce these risks, challenging current practice and limiting complications.

Clamps are a necessary part of standard CVCs. However, Kimal advocates an automated closed system – LuerSafe clamps – to avoid the unnecessary risk of accidental air embolism. Last August, a fatal case in the UK

was reported by the Royal College of Anaesthetists, and according to PatientSafe it is estimated that one patient dies every day worldwide from avoidable CVC air embolisms.

Kimal’s unique patented Multi-Tube technology allows for multiple lumens without compromise to flow rate.

Multi-Tube technology creates perfectly round lumens, allowing for smooth, laminar

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flow for the first time in a multi-lumen CVC. As a result, Kimal is the only company able to provide a seven lumen CVC at only 8.5 French. This innovation provides the clinician with as many lumens as required without increasing the risks traditionally associated with a greater number of lumens. The lumens are also colour-coded, which gives hospitals the opportunity to standardise protocols on which drugs should be administered through which lumens.

This is critical in reducing possible accidents and other risks to patients.

New technology is enabling Kimal to develop CVCs that meet modern clinicians’ needs.

The company has also teamed up with a number of consultants to develop another first – the upcoming eight lumen CVC

Global Media and the ‘Most Innovative Vascular Access Device Manufacturer’ in Global Health & Pharma’s International Lifesciences Awards. In addition, the company’s CEO Alan Press was named ‘Innovator of the Year’ by the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network in 2016, and Kimal has been shortlisted for the HSJ Patient Safety Award 2017.

In their mission to improve current practice, Kimal has now developed the Altius HP CVC which has a dedicated line for high-pressure injection. There is no need for an extra line insertion to

A central venous catheter (CVC) is a catheter inserted in a large vein to administer drugs or fluids that are unable to be taken by mouth or through a small vein.

administer contrast media, which is a substance used in diagnostic imaging procedures. This saves time, reduces equipment cost, and again provides less opportunity for infection to occur. Altius HP also reduces the risk of catheter rupture, which can occur when using a standard CVC for delivery of contrast media. Risk of infection is further reduced with Altius ProActiv+, a CVC which uses a noneluting, covalently bonded antimicrobial that protects the patient for the duration of therapy.

with a distal high flow lumen. This particular CVC has been developed to meet the needs of liver transplants and complex trauma cases.

Thanks to the unique design of Altius, Kimal has won a number of innovation titles over the last year. The company was awarded the ‘UK Innovation in Biotechnology Award’ from AI

Kimal is bringing innovation to a type of medical technology that hasn’t seen much change in the last 30 years, and working to prove that you don’t need to compromise between patient safety and drug delivery performance. 2017 is set to see the launch of the first in a range of sensor catheters from Kimal, which will use cutting-edge patented technology to aid in the early detection of sepsis, one of the biggest killers in hospitals today. www.kimal.co.uk

Meeting the unmet

Using hyperthermia in the treatment of bladder cancer Combat Medical has been working since 2008 with a team of urologists, nurses, medical engineers, production specialists and end users to develop a hyperthermic delivery system known as Combat BRS, which combines with chemotherapy to treat certain types of bladder cancer.

Although bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer globally, it is an area in which there has been very little innovation over the last 30 years. It is also widely considered to be one of the most expensive types of cancer to treat, due to the high number of recurrences. In recent years, there has been a worldwide shortage of the drug BCG – an immunotherapy drug used to treat bladder cancer – which means that alternative treatments are in demand.

Hyperthermia refers to treatments in which the temperature of a particular organ, tissue or bodily region is raised.

Clinical and lab studies have found that carefully controlled hyperthermia appears to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation, as well as of the body’s immune system.

The Combat BRS system is a patented recirculation system that enables the delivery of Hyperthermic Intra-

VEsical Chemotherapy (HIVEC) in the treatment of non muscle invasive bladder cancer. HIVEC treatment aims to significantly increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs by heating and recirculating the drug during intravesical instillation.

The Combat BRS System has been in clinical use since 2011. Simple to integrate into current treatment practice it requires minimal set up, no continuous monitoring and therefore minimal additional resources. The system is affordable and can reduce overall treatment costs by improving patient outcomes.

In 2016, Combat Medical launched the HIVEC-E international database to serve as a collection point for data from all over the world about patients receiving HIVEC treatment. The database is completely anonymised, voluntary and designed to help hospitals, doctors and nurses record, manage and analyse data. It is hoped that over time, as valuable data

is collected, new insights will be gained that will lead to the optimal treatment and management of patients with non muscle invasive bladder cancer.

HIVEC-I and HIVEC-II clinical trials involving hundreds of patients have been underway in Spain and the UK. Safety data from these trials was presented at the 2017 European Association of Urology Congress in London, demonstrating that there is no difference in tolerability between cold and heated mitomycin - the chemotherapy drug most often used in bladder cancer. Efficacy data is expected to be presented in 2018. The EAU has recommended device assisted therapy (such as the Combat BRS system) in patients with BCG failure unsuitable for radical cystectomy.

To date, 17,000 treatments across 33 countries have been conducted using Combat BRS, and more clinical trials are expected to commence during 2017 and 2018.

www.hivec.co.uk

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2017-18 Med-Tech Innovation Expo Coventry, UK 26-27 April

UK Lifescience World Advanced Therapies & Regenerative Medicine Congress London, UK 17-19 May

Natural Compounds & Drug Development Day Cardiff, UK 16 May

26-27

17-19

16

BIO International Convention San Diego, USA 19-22 June

MediWales Connects: NHS Collaboration Conference Cardiff, UK 21 June

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21

June

23-24 May

April BioFocus Conference Newcastlee, UK 15 June

BioDundee Dundee, UK 23-24 May

19-22

ON Helix Cambridge, UK 13 July

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June July

BioPharma India Mumbai, India 26-27 September

Rehacare Düsseldorf, Germany 4 October

26-27 September

4 October

BIO-Europe Berlin, Germanyy 6-8 November

MEDICA Düsseldorf, Germany 13-16 November

6-8 13-16 November

UK HealthTech Cardiff, UK 5 December

5 December

Industry Event Calendar Anglonordic Life Science Conference XIV London, UK 31 May

Africa Health Johannesburg, South Africa 7-9 June

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BIA/MHRA Conference London, UK 8 June

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8

7-9

May

Medilink East Midlands Innovation Day Nottingham, UK 15 June

June

June

Health and Care Innovation Expo Manchester, UK 11-12 September

Nordic Life Sciences Days Malmรถ, Sweden 12-14 September

11-12

ABHI MedTech Trade Mission to California California, USA 23-29 September

12-14

September

MediWales Innovation Awards Dinner Cardiff, UK 12 December

12 December

One Nucleus: Genesis London, UK 14 December

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Arab Health Dubai, UAE 29 January - 1 February 2018

29-1(Feb) Jan-Feb 2018

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BioPharm America Boston, USA 26-27 September

26-27

23-29

September

SEHTA AGM & Annual Conference London, UK 15 June

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