MedaPhor – Parkwalk investment
We are delighted to announce that the Parkwalk Opportunities Fund has participated in the recent financing round of Medaphor Group plc, the Cardiff University Spin-out and global provider of advanced ultrasound training simulators for medical professionals.
Creavo Medical Technologies – Parkwalk closes investment
We are pleased to announce that the Parkwalk Opportunities Fund has made an investment in Creavo Medical Technologies, a University of Leeds Spin-out company, as part of a £13.4 million fundraising.
Brainomix joins forces with Boehringer Ingelheim to help save stroke victims
Oxford – An ambitious collaboration between Brainomix, an emerging British business, and Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s largest drug companies, is poised to expedite and improve treatment of stroke, the second biggest killer disease in Europe.
Sphere Medical – Results for the year ended 31 December 2016
Sphere Medical Holding plc (AIM: SPHR.L), an innovative point-of-care monitoring and diagnostic devices company, announces its results for the year ended 31 December 2016.
Business highlights for 2016 and post year-end
· Successful commercial launch of Proxima 4 in mid-December 2016 in Europe with encouraging early market reaction
· First sales of Proxima 4 achieved
· Over 20 hospitals have requested evaluations of Proxima 4
· 4 hospitals have monitored patients with Proxima 4
· First paediatric patients monitored
· Key Proxima 4 milestones met:
· CE mark certification completed
· Distribution partners appointed in Italy and Spain
· >20% reduction in time to results demonstrated by University Hospital Southampton clinical study
· Improved connectivity between Proxima and hospital data management systems
· New production facilities established and operational in Wales
Financial summary
· Reduced loss after taxation £4.5 million (2015: £5.5 million)
· Reduced loss per share 3.2 pence (2015: 4.8 pence)
· Operating expenses contained below budget
· Total operating expenses reduced to £5.1 million (2015: £6.1 million)
· Product development costs capitalised £2.1 million (2015: £0.9 million)
· Revenue doubled to £30,000 (2015: £15,000)
· R&D tax credit received £0.6 million (2015: £0.6 million)
· Cash and short-term investments at year end of £3.2 million (2015: £10.0 million)
· Additional £3.0 million loan facility secured post year end
· £1.5 million cash drawn in January 2017
· £1.5 million conditionally available to draw until March 2018
Commenting on today’s announcement, Dr Wolfgang Rencken, Chief Executive Officer of Sphere Medical, said: “We are pleased to have launched Proxima 4 and are very encouraged by the early market reaction to it. As we build a growing customer base, who routinely use Proxima, more patients will be able to benefit from being managed with the system. We continue to advance distributor negotiations to expand Proxima 4’s commercial launch with the aim to make it available to a wider patient population across Europe.“
For further information, please contact:
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Sphere Medical Holding plc |
Tel: +44 (0)1223 875 222 |
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Dr Wolfgang Rencken, Chief Executive Officer |
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Richard Wright, Chief Financial Officer |
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Panmure Gordon |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500 |
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Freddy Crossley (Corporate Finance) |
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Duncan Monteith (Corporate Finance) Tom Salvesen (Corporate Broking) |
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Consilium Strategic Communications |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3709 5700 |
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Mary-Jane Elliott |
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Ivar Milligan |
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Hendrik Thys |
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Brainomix – International Journal of Stroke Publication
Oxford – A new clinical study was conducted by Anglia Ruskin Clinical Trials Unit reporting the performance of e-ASPECTS. In this multi-centre study, non-contrast enhanced computed tomography (NCCT) images from ischemic stroke patients were evaluated by e-ASPECTS and 3 independent neuroradiologists and compared to ground truth ASPECTS scores determined by a core imaging lab. The results showed that e-ASPECTS is on average statistically non-inferior to expert neuroradiologists.
The results of this study have been published in the International Journal of Stroke Link
Dr Michalis Papadakis, Brainomix CEO, stated “This is very important news for us in Brainomix as it is the first clinical trial to demonstrate non-inferiority of the e-ASPECTS software compared to manual ASPECTS scoring by experienced neuroradiologists. As a company we are committed to our physicians making sure they can quickly diagnose and intervene during an acute stroke, delivering rapid and expert care.”
The company’s website can be viewed here.
Healthera – University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund III investment
We are delighted to announce that the University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund III has invested in Healthera Ltd, a provider of next-generation, pharmacy-integrated personal health management solutions, has secured seed investment from the University of Cambridge, the University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund III, FT Capital and high net worth individuals. The specific amounts are undisclosed.
This round of institutional funding allows Healthera to complete its product development on the next generation of pharmacy IT solutions and personal health management app, and it has financed its pre-launch testing of product-market fit.
Healthera’s products:
- Seamlessly transfer and interpret complex medical instructions to patients
- Empower the pharmacy industry with digital technology, helping it cut costs and develop multiple additional revenue streams, despite the recent government austerity
- Truly enable patients to participate in managing their own medication and to supply their health care providers with real-world analytics
In January 2016, Healthera became the first pharmacy-integrated medication-application available on the Apple app store.
Brainomix – Parkwalk closes follow-on investment
We have recently closed an investment in Brainomix for the Parkwalk UK Tech Fund VII and the Opportunities Fund.
Brainomix is aiming to improve stroke treatment dramatically by developing software that gives all hospitals and clinics access to reliable diagnoses for their patients.
Brainomix’s ground-breaking technology, e-ASPECTS is a clinical decision support tool that automatically implements the Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) clinical scoring methodology, to assist clinicians in timely identification of acute ischemic stroke patients eligible for life-saving treatment and thereby dramatically improve stroke treatment.
Strokes are the third highest cause of death and the primary cause of disability worldwide and yet, even in the Europe and the US, up to half of the patients who should be treated for stroke are not, because of difficulty in reading CT scan images accurately.
Brainomix Co-founder Professor Alastair Buchan is the inventor of the ASPECTS system which is the most reliable method to diagnose stroke for treatment that improves patient outcomes. However, in practice the ASPECTS accuracy is often impaired by human subjectivity and its utility is severely limited by a lack of expert clinicians.
Brainomix e-ASPECTS software is the first system to provide automated and standardised analysis of CT brain scans for stroke damage, assessing patients’ suitability for life saving treatment. It has strong potential to become an indispensable tool in stroke care and generate substantial health economic benefits.
The company’s website can be viewed here.
Micrima – University of Bristol Enterprise Fund I investment
We are delighted to announce that the University of Bristol Enterprise Fund I, managed by Parkwalk, has invested in Micrima.
The company intends to develop and commercialise a new Breast Imaging System (MARIA) aimed at radically improving breast cancer detection and survival rates through the provision of much safer, more frequent, more comfortable and less expensive breast checks from a much younger age, and delivered within the local community. The company’s proprietary technology seeks to improve screening effectiveness for both younger and older women with dense breast tissue, where X-ray mammography (XRM) is widely acknowledged to be inadequate.
DefiniGEN – Parkwalk closes follow on investment
Parkwalk closes DefiniGen investment for the University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund IV and Parkwalk Funds
DefiniGEN, a spin-out from the University of Cambridge Regenerative Medicine Department at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, have created a stem cell technology to provide human cells to the drug discovery sector for use in lead optimisation and toxicity programmes.
The Company’s proprietary production platform OptiDIFF robustly generates human cell types including using hIPSC human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell technology. DefiniGEN has utilised the OptiDIFF platform to produce validated libraries of disease modelled human liver and pancreatic cells for a range of Inherited Metabolic Diseases (IMDs).
The phenotype and pathology of the diseases has been confirmed in the cells and the resulting products are available for utilisation in drug discovery lead optimization studies.
Oxford Endovascular – Parkwalk closes University of Oxford Isis Fund investment
We are delighted to announce that the University of Oxford Isis Fund II has completed an investment in Oxford Endovascular Limited, a company developing sophisticated mesh tubes to treat patients suffering from brain aneurysms. Parkwalk invested in a £2m round alongside the new Oxford Sciences Innovation plc.
The Oxford technology uses a special laser-cut metal alloy which has a shape-memory. It can be posted into a catheter during surgery, inserted into the brain and opened up into a tiny tube mesh (‘flow diverter’) that fits into the natural shape of the blood vessel. This diverts the blood away from the aneurysm, allowing it to heal.
Brainomix – receives Biomedical Catalyst funding to develop clinical decision-making software for stroke patients
Oxford, UK: Brainomix Limited, a developer of automated medical imaging software for neurological and cerebrovascular disorders, has been awarded £633,553 by the Biomedical Catalyst, a joint programme run by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Innovate UK. The funding is for two years and will support the development and validation of clinical decision-making support software designed to identify stroke patients who can benefit from mechanical reopening of a brain artery.
“We are very honoured to receive this award. We are now able to develop software that will empower physicians to identify stroke patients who benefit from the life-saving, but expensive treatment of mechanical clot removal,” said Dr Michalis Papadakis, Brainomix Chief Executive Officer.
The technology, called perfusion-ASPECTS, will automate the procedure to measure tissue at risk on brain CT scans and identify patients who can benefit from mechanical reopening of a brain artery. Worldwide, annually, 13,000,000 people suffer a stroke. Recent studies show that mechanical clot removal improves patient outcome and the procedure is currently transforming stroke treatment. Patient selection is crucial for the adoption of this procedure because it costs up to £23,000 per patient.
Brainomix will build on its e-ASPECTS stroke damage measurement software to develop and validate perfusion-ASPECTS. The international reputation of the Brainomix founders in stroke will aid the successful development and clinical adoption of perfusion-ASPECTS
For more information, see the Branomix website.
Parkwalk closes Orthox investment
We are pleased to announce that Parkwalk VI, the Opportunities EIS Fund and the University of Oxford Isis Fund II have made an investment in Orthox, a tissue regenerative orthopaedic implant company with technology spun out of Oxford University.
Orthox is a medical device company founded in 2008 to exploit FibroFix, a novel silk-based biomaterial platform, for the repair of injuries to cartilage and bone. FibroFix combines exceptional strength and resilience with a porous architecture and chemical structure similar to Fibronectin, an essential component of human cartilage. Orthox believes these properties will allow FibroFix™ to act as both an immediate functional replacement for damaged cartilage, and a long term regenerative repair solution.
Parkwalk closes Sphere Medical investment
We are pleased to announce that the Parkwalk Opportunities EIS Fund has participated in a £13m financing round into the AIM-listed Sphere Medical Holdings plc. The financing round was led by Woodford’s Patient Capital Trust plc and Chris Evans’ Arthurian Life Sciences Fund.
Sphere Medical is a dynamic company specialising in the development of innovative medical monitoring and diagnostic equipment.
Sphere’s products are used in a wide range of medical applications, enabling faster clinical decision-making and improved patient outcomes, whilst providing efficiencies that result in reduced healthcare costs.
Sphere Medical aims to improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs through supplying healthcare professionals with innovative, real time point of care diagnostic and monitoring products.
Brainomix – Positive endovascular trial uses ASPECTS
A seminal paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine describing the results of the ESCAPE trial for endovascular treatment of stroke patients. This study shows that rapid endovascular treatment leads to significantly improved functional outcomes in stroke patients, given appropriate selection criteria.
As part of the trial, patients with small infarct core were selected using the ASPECTS method. This shows the continuing importance of reliably assessing plain CT scans to identify patients who can benefit most from appropriate treatments. Brainomix intends to provide standardisation and widespread availability of the CT scan assessment through use of the e-ASPECTS software.
For more information, see the ESCAPE trial website or the Branomix website.
Mode DX – The £35 DIY test that can spot signs of bowel cancer
Mode Diagnostics have been featured in the Daily Mail:
- The £35 DIY test that can spot signs of bowel cancer: Experts say discreet kit will encourage middle-aged people to self-check
- DIY testing kit for bowel cancer and other disorders has gone on sale
- Results displayed on a screen with an amber warning light to seek advice
- Experts say it will encourage middle-aged people to self-check for signs
- Bowel cancer is the third most common form of the disease in the UK
Read the full article here.
Brainomix – wins ACES award for ICT
University of Oxford Isis Fund I and Parkwalk portfolio company Brainomix wins ACES entrepreneurship prize which rewards companies working in health and environment:
BERLIN – 7 October 2014. Spin-outs from Germany, Switzerland and the UK won the ACES awards for academic entrepreneurship in Europe. The three awards – one each for innovative companies in life sciences and ICT, and one Green award for companies with a a low environmental footprint and a clear societal impact – were presented on Tuesday 7 October 2014 at a ceremony at TU Berlin, Germany.
Read the full article here.
Brainomix – University of Oxford Isis Fund I and Parkwalk investment
We have recently closed an investment in Brainomix for the University of Oxford Isis Fund I and Parkwalk Funds.
Brainomix is aiming to improve stroke treatment dramatically by developing software that gives all hospitals and clinics access to reliable diagnoses for their patients. Strokes are the third highest cause of death and the primary cause of disability worldwide and yet, even in the Europe and the US, up to half of the patients who should be treated for stroke are not, because of difficulty in reading CT scan images accurately.
Brainomix Co-founder Professor Alastair Buchan is the inventor of the ASPECTS system which is the most reliable method to diagnose stroke for treatment that improves patient outcomes. However, in practice the ASPECTS accuracy is often impaired by human subjectivity and its utility is severely limited by a lack of expert clinicians.
Brainomix e-ASPECTS software is the first system to provide automated and standardised analysis of CT brain scans for stroke damage, assessing patients’ suitability for life saving treatment. It has strong potential to become an indispensable tool in stroke care and generate substantial health economic benefits.
The company’s website can be viewed here.
Oxtex – University of Oxford Isis Fund I investment
We have recently made an investment in Oxtex for the University of Oxford Isis Fund I.
Oxtex has developed a surgical implant device which addresses the problem created by the lack of sufficient skin in areas requiring reconstructive surgery.
Oxtex received the OBN Bioscience award for Best Emerging MedTech in 2011 and Best New Medtech product in 2012.
Oxtex addresses a significant challenge in reconstructive surgery, namely the absence of sufficient skin in the area where the surgery is taking place. However, skin has the remarkable ability to grow when put under controlled tension leading to the creation of additional skin and associated soft tissue. This is what the Oxtex device exploits. The device is implanted underneath the skin close to the repair site, where it will slowly expand in one direction causing the skin to grow. After the expander has been removed, this “new skin” can then be used in the reconstruction.
Oxtex has developed a self-inflatable tissue expander that enables the creation of additional skin through controlled stretching in a wide variety of anatomical locations. The expander has applications in many areas of plastic surgery (burns/scar revision, breast reconstruction, dental and oral surgery, crossbite correction), as well as the veterinary market (tumour removal). Successful tissue expansion reduces the cost of treatment and is a significant improvement to other alternative forms of surgical reconstruction.
DefiniGEN Joins EBiSC Consortium
DefiniGEN (an investment in the University of Cambridge Enterprise Funds I & II), a leading provider of stem cell life science products and services has joined the European Bank for induced pluripotent stem cells (EBiSC) consortium. The consortium comprises 26 partners, and has been newly-formed with support from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). The EBiSC iPS cell bank will act as a central storage and distribution facility for human iPS cells, to be used by researchers across academia and industry in the study of disease and the development of new therapeutics. DefiniGEN’s role will be to validate EBiSC iPS cell lines by generating liver hepatocyte cells for toxicology, disease modelling, and regenerative medicine applications.
Read the full article here.
Microsaic Systems – Signs pre-contract Commercial Agreement
Microsaic Systems Signs Pre-Contract Commercial Agreement with Leading Global Supplier of Scientific Instrumentation in Healthcare Markets
14 April 2014: Microsaic Systems plc (AIM: MSYS), the high technology company developing next generation mass spectrometry instruments, is pleased to announce the signing of a pre-contract commercial agreement to provide its miniature mass spectrometer – the Microsaic 4000 MiD(R) – as an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). The agreement is for the global, exclusive marketing and sale of the 4000 MiD(R) , along with Microsaic’s recently released MiDas interface unit, as a stand-alone instrument for use in protein separation applications. The partner is a major international healthcare equipment company.
The agreement is focused on the use of the 4000 MiD in combination with protein separation, a major application that is used globally and has increasing market demand. It follows a period of R&D collaboration in which Microsaic has successfully adapted and enhanced the 4000 MiD to address this new application.
Microsaic and the partner will now work towards completion and signing of a full commercial contract by the end of the 2014 calendar year. The contract is anticipated to include a commitment to purchase up to 50 units and consumables of the 4000 MiD in the first year, increasing to over 200 units and consumables from the fourth year onwards. The initial period of the contract is expected to be 48 months. The selling price is in line with the Board’s expectations. Shipments under the agreement are anticipated to commence in Q1 2015.
Colin Jump, Chief Executive of Microsaic Systems, commented:
“We are delighted to begin this new OEM relationship with one of the leading global suppliers of healthcare instrumentation. This relationship will introduce a substantial new market segment for Microsaic. We believe that our unique 4000 MiD system has the potential to make mass spectrometry more accessible to lab scientists than ever before, thereby opening up new opportunities across a wide range of applications and formats. This potential is already being realised through our existing partnerships and we are excited about the future prospects for the 4000 MiD and other innovative products being developed.”
