RheoDx informative day at the CRM (4/02/2020)
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RheoDx, the CRM spin-off born in 2018, hosted yesterday an informative day offering an overview of the company, its trajectory since being establishment and what the future holds for the blood testing device that is currently under development.
RheoDX was founded in Barcelona, Spain, in 2018, as a business project born at the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM) with the aid of The Collider programme, the accelerator of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona created to convert technological assets from universities and research centers into business realities. It has already won awards from the European Commission. It raised €350K this year on Spanish investment platform Capital Cell (the first in Europe to specialise in biomedicine). Its patented technology is backed by half a dozen published papers and it has partnered with The Institute of Leukemia Josep Carreras (IJC).
Rheo Diagnostics is developing a portable in-vitro diagnosis device for the analysis of the elastic properties of red blood cells and detect abnormalities fast (only takes 5 min) and cheaply with a single drop of blood. The test consists of a microfluidic consumable, a reader system and a cloud server where the data is processed and translated into clinical evidence. It is a device with multiple applications in haematology, from diagnosis to monitoring of patients receiving blood transfusions. The RheoDx device allows detecting blood cell abnormalities immediately and cost-effectively with a single drop of blood.
“There will also be a growth in need for RheoDx”, said Oliver Balcells, CEO of RheoDx in a recent interview, “with a high prevalence of infectious diseases in developing countries and increasing prevalence of chronic disorders coupled with a rising geriatric population and rising preference for home healthcare across the globe”.
“The volume of testing performed outside the conventional laboratory will undoubtedly grow and will continue to be driven by the need to deliver care faster, closer to the patient and at a lower cost”.
The project is intended for a market of 80 million patients in Europe, including anaemias, liquid cancers, coagulation disorders and infections such as malaria. It aims to complete clinical trials by 2021, with its first sales later that year and FDA Approval in 2022.