Projects from south to share £5m of gov't funding to tackle drug deaths

The UK government has announced that 12 promising projects, including two from the South, have been awarded a share of £5 million in a bid to reduce fatal drug overdoses.

The projects will operate across all four nations of the UK and range from AI technologies to detect overdoses, to drone technology to deliver antidotes, and wearable technologies or breathing monitors to detect overdoses and create alerts.

Eleven projects have been awarded up to £100,000 each to launch four-month feasibility studies in September to develop prototypes, with one additional project securing up to £500,000 for a year-long demonstration study.

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Any feasibility studies that show promising results will be able to apply for up to £500,000 grants to carry out follow on 12-month demonstration projects starting in May next year.

Included in the winning projects was the Vivisco Smart Revive Beacon for opiate overdose.

This will see Vivisco work with organisations in Kent to co-design and prototype an automatic alert system to contact emergency services with GPS location and type of antidote used that is triggered when a naloxone (an opioid overdose antidote) package is opened.

Another winner was a project from King’s College London spinout firm DroneMatLab Ltd, which is partnering with the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths, HeroTech8, Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, University of Southampton and Wessex Academic Health Science Network.

This project aims to develop an effective emergency response for the distribution of naloxone by drone to prevent opioid overdoses becoming fatal.

George Freeman, science, innovation and technology minister, said: "Every single death from drug misuse is a tragedy, which has an awful impact on that person’s loved ones and community - and thousands every year are avoidable with better detection and faster intervention."

The whole project is being run by the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office, which has invested £500,000 of the funding, in partnership with the Office for Life Sciences who have invested the remaining £4.5 million.

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