MetaGuideX, an innovative cancer diagnostics company established as a spin-out business from Oxford Brookes University, has won the 2020 Oxford Academic Health Science Network’s Accelerator programme.
The company was identified from eight start-ups as a promising solution to the NHS and UK life sciences needs with its novel breast cancer diagnostic, which could potentially save patients from unnecessary surgery and chemotherapy.
MetaGuideX is now beginning to implement its business strategy and is open to investment to develop its radical new cancer diagnostic tool, which could hugely improve patient management.
The Oxford AHSN Accelerator, delivered by BioCity, guided eight innovative start-ups as they tested whether their product is a good fit for the target markets. Due to restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s programme ran entirely virtually, with sessions and online support provided by the BioCity platform and their team of mentors.
At the end of November, the eight start-ups presented their progress and pitched their proposals for future investment to a panel of experts from the Oxford AHSN, BioCity and industry. The MetaGuideX pitch, led by Dr Ryan Pink (CEO) and Prof Dave Carter (CSO), presented insights into how their novel breast cancer diagnostic can potentially save patients from unnecessary surgery and chemotherapy, improving patient outcomes and bringing cost savings to the NHS. MetaGuideX were crowned as the winning team.
MetaGuideX’s CEO, Dr Ryan Pink, said: “We were confident that MetaGuideX had a diagnostic product that could improve the lives of women with breast cancer, but we were not sure of the best way to place it into the healthcare system. The Oxford AHSN Accelerator took us on an exciting and challenging journey to explore the current healthcare landscape. Thanks to the Accelerator programme, we now have a better set of tools and a clear strategy on how best to position our diagnostic to maximise the benefit to both patients and their clinicians.”
Dr Paul Durrands, Chief Operating Officer of the Oxford AHSN, added: “In a challenging year for all innovators, it is testament to the commitment and hard work of all the companies that they’ve successfully completed this second Oxford AHSN Accelerator Programme. The progress that each company made over the programme, in an entirely virtual environment, was amazing to see.”
Toby Reid, BioCity CEO, said: “The ventures which took part in the Accelerator programme were of the highest calibre. Our partnership with Oxford AHSN is based upon a shared goal of supporting life science innovation at a regional level; MetaGuideX is a fantastic example of such innovation. We are very pleased to support MetaGuideX as they continue their business development journey and to see what the future holds for this promising new venture.”
This news follows on from the success of MetaGuideX in the Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe) discovery programme in March this year. The company received £210,000 to spin out the technology from Oxford Brookes University and are now seeking seed investment to match fund this.
