Abingdon Health enters into a partnership with Sumitomo Chemical to build on the rapid diagnostic test platform developed by Sumitomo and Abingdon Health subsidiary Molecular Vision.
Abingdon Health, a portfolio company of University of Birmingham’s tech transfer office Alta Innovations, has entered a partnership with Japan-based industrial company Sumitomo Chemical.
Abingdon Health is a medical diagnostics group part owned by the university that works on manufacturing and commercialising diagnostic tests for immune system disorders. The partnership with Sumitomo Chemical will see the two firms developing a multiplexed biosensor device
The partnership between Abingdon Health and Sumitomo Chemical follows from a two-year collaboration between the Japan-based firm and Molecular Vision, a subsidiary of Abingdon Health. This collaboration focused on creating a compact device for diagnostic applications.
The device has multiple applications such as a rapid diagnostic test for multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. The multiplexed biosensor device developed as a result of the latest partnership will build on the rapid diagnostic test device.
James Wilkie, chief executive of Alta Innovations the commercial arm of University of Birmingham, said: “We have worked closely with Abingdon Health to bring our existing myeloma test to market and this new collaboration will lead to the next generation of rapid testing for this and many other diseases.”
In June 2015, Abingdon Health raised $4.7m from Imperial Innovations, the technology transfer unit of Imperial College London. This brought the company’s funding to date to £8.1m
($11.9m).
To learn more about Alta Innovations and Abingdon Health, read our spotlight series on University of Birmingham here and here.
