TIDMNSCI
RNS Number : 1279I
NetScientific PLC
10 December 2020
NetScientific plc
("NetScientific" or the "Company")
ProAxsis Limited awarded Innovate UK grant to utilise company
technology to identify high risk COVID-19 patients
London, UK - 10 December 2020 - NetScientific plc (AIM: NSCI),
the life sciences, technology, investment and commercialisation
company, announces that its portfolio company ProAxsis Limited
("ProAxsis"), announced that it has been awarded a high impact
Innovate UK grant as part of the recent "UKRI Ideas to Address
COVID-19" competition. The company will immediately initiate the
GBP390,000 project, which will be co-funded by Innovate UK, to
develop novel protease biomarkers to identify high-risk
patients.
ProAxsis is established at the forefront of respiratory
diagnostics, with clients in the Pharma and clinical trials
markets. Its R&D pipeline is reinforcing this position by
expanding the applicability of its technology - including around
the use of its biomarkers platform to help in the fight against
COVID-19.
This further development activity supports the goal for ProAxsis
to fully establish itself as the leading commercial protease
diagnostic provider of choice globally. The grant support enables
ProAxsis to expand its services available to the growing global
client list of pharmaceutical companies and academic laboratories,
enhance the NEATstik(R) point of care test, and realise the
opportunities in the COVID-19 response.
Gavin Robinson, MP for Belfast East, said: " Last week we
received positive news that the UK would be rolling out a vaccine
this side of Christmas. I am delighted that this week, ProAxsis
based in East Belfast have been successful in their application for
an Innovate UK grant. A huge congratulations to the dedicated team
for this notable achievement."
John Clarkson, Chairman of NetScientific and ProAxsis,
commented: "This is the 5(th) independently assessed grant awarded
to the company in 2020, enabling partial funding support of
projects with a total overall value of over GBP1 million. Despite
the challenging environment and lockdown interruption, ProAxsis has
made strong progress this year and this latest announcement
illustrates the increased commercial potential for its respiratory
diagnostics offering in a post-COVID-19 world. The other awards
include:
1. An Innovate UK rapid GBP50,000 grant for Cytokine
multiplexing in sputum to help identify critical signs of clinical
deterioration for patients infected with COVID-19.
2. A GBP200k+ R&D project with Invest Northern Ireland,
seeking to create new diagnostic tests for chronic human
respiratory diseases.
3. 12-month collaboration with the Northern Ireland Connected
Health Innovation Centre (CHIC), on a R&D project designed to
enhance NEATstik(R), our point-of-care diagnostic test.
4. 12-week project with the Eastern Corridor Medical Engineering
(ECME) Centre at Ulster University, targeted at completing the
final validation of the Cathepsin G immunoassay."
NetScientific holds 95% of ProAxsis on a fully diluted
basis.
The full text of the announcement from ProAxsis can be found
below.
# # #
ProAxsis ( www.proaxsis.com ) , the Belfast-based respiratory
diagnostics company, today announces that it has been awarded a
high impact Innovate UK grant as part of the recent " UKRI Ideas to
Address COVID-19 " competition. The company will immediately
initiate the GBP390,000 project, which will be co-funded by
Innovate UK, to develop novel protease biomarkers to identify
high-risk patients.
Speaking about the plans, Dr David Ribeiro, CEO of ProAxsis,
said:
"Recognition of this kind from Innovate UK, the UK's innovation
agency, is an enormous testament to the cutting-edge research being
conducted by the ProAxsis team of scientists at its purpose-built
laboratory in Belfast. This project is targeted at utilising the
company's unprecedented expertise in active protease biomarkers to
enable clinicians to identify which patients are at highest risk of
experiencing significant symptoms when they become infected with
COVID-19, as well as creating novel diagnostic tools for measuring
the effectiveness of potential therapies. This award will drive
significant expansion of the company's R&D activities and
builds on our existing work on inflammatory biomarkers associated
with COVID-19."
Dr Ribeiro added:
"The awarding of this grant, alongside the strong support of our
parent company, Netscientific plc, has enabled the company to
immediately expand its team in Belfast with the recruitment of
additional R&D scientists. As a first step, we welcome Ciaran
McGranaghan, who recently graduated with a First Class Honours
degree in Biological Sciences from Queen's University Belfast."
Gavin Robinson, MP for Belfast East, said: " Last week we
received positive news that the UK would be rolling out a vaccine
this side of Christmas. I am delighted that this week, ProAxsis
based in East Belfast have been successful in their application for
an Innovate UK grant. A huge congratulations to the dedicated team
for this notable achievement."
Any enquiries concerning ProAxsis' work on COVID-19 can be
directed to info@proaxsis.com.
About ProAxsis
ProAxsis Limited is a commercial-stage diagnostics company,
based in Northern Ireland, and with a rapidly growing global client
list of pharmaceutical companies and academic laboratories. The
company has registered a CE Mark for activity-based immunoassays
targeting Neutrophil Elastase (NE) and Proteinase 3, as biomarkers
of lung infection and inflammation in chronic respiratory diseases
such as COPD, cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis.
This technology has been translated into a point-of-care test
(NEATstik(R)), to enable ongoing monitoring of active NE levels.
Recently published data has shown that measuring active NE levels
using NEATstik(R) enables identification of patients with airway
bacterial infection and those patients at highest risk of suffering
pulmonary exacerbations over the subsequent 12 months.
In addition to proteases, the company also has significant
expertise in the measurement of other inflammatory biomarkers,
including IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha. Grant-funded R&D funded
projects for a variety of targets remain a key area of focus.
Aside from the provision of assays, ProAxsis can offer sample
analysis at its purpose-built laboratory facility in Belfast and is
currently supporting a number of pharmaceutical company-sponsored
Phase I, II and III clinical trials.
ProAxsis became a fully owned subsidiary of Netscientific plc in
October 2020.
About Innovate UK
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by
supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new
areas. We connect businesses to the partners, customers and
investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially
successful products and services and business growth.
We fund business and research collaborations to accelerate
innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Our support
is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value
chains and UK regions.
Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation. For more
information, please visit www.innovateuk.ukri.org
# # #
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Following the
publication of this announcement, this inside information is now
considered to be in the public domain.
For more information, please contact:
NetScientific
Ilian Iliev, CEO Tel: +44 (0)20 3514 1800
WH Ireland (NOMAD, Financial Adviser and Broker)
Chris Fielding / Darshan Patel Tel: +44 (0)20 7220 1666
About NetScientific
NetScientific is a life sciences, technology, investment and
commercialisation Group, leveraging trans-Atlantic relationships
and global opportunities to deliver shareholder value.
For more information, please visit the website at
www.NetScientific.net
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