Reading’s Occuity awarded £343k Innovate UK grant

Reading-based MedTech startup Occuity has been awarded a £343,000 Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst grant.

The grant will be used to continue the development of the firm’s AGE reader, an optical medical device which will be able to screen for diabetes non-invasively, meaning it can be used in non-clinical settings like pharmacies and opticians.

Biomedical Catalyst, Innovate UK’s funding competition for health and life sciences SMEs in the UK, provides financial support to accelerate the route to commercialisation of innovative solutions to healthcare challenges.

Currently, 422 million people in the world are affected by Type 2 diabetes, which has led to around 10 per cent of all government health spending being used to cover costs associated with complications relating to the disease. This, in turn, has led to the World Health Organisation classifying diabetes as a pandemic.

When diabetes is caught early, the costs associated with its prevention and management, such as healthier diets and increased exercise, are comparatively inexpensive. Recent increases in diabetes in young adults and children evidence the need the for wide-ranging diabetes screening. Currently, however, this can only be done through blood tests, which need to be carried out in a clinical setting.

Occuity’s AGE reader measures the concentration of Advanced Glycation End-Products in the eye, based on research which shows these correlate to blood glucose levels, which can be measured to show a person’s risk of diabetes.

The non-contact, handheld AGE reader will shine a blue light into the eye, illuminating the ocular lens, then detect the returning scattered and fluorescent light from the AGEs, using the reading to measure AGE levels and determine the patient’s risk of diabetes, using machine learning to give a diagnosis of non-diabetic, pre-diabetic or diabetic.

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Dan Daly, CEO and Co-founder of Occuity said: “The value of a more convenient way to screen for diabetes is clear. For the individual, early identification can help them take appropriate actions to avoid the worst effects of the disease whilst for health services, alongside the improved patient outcomes and quality of life, there is an added financial incentive.

“This grant will enable us to develop a benchtop device to demonstrate the technical advances and to make a functioning meter to provide a route forward to a commercially viable product.”

Samana Brannigan, Head of Health Technologies at Innovate UK said “Biomedical Catalyst funding will support Occuity in their journey to commercialise and scale-up this cutting-edge technology and deliver further growth for the UK Life sciences Sector.

“The development of a portable, handheld, non-invasive device for use in non-clinical settings could contribute to proactive, person centric care in the community and lead to significant global opportunities.”

The project will start on 1 December 2022 and is projected to last 15 months. Advances in Occuity's technology will also provide a platform for developing further screening devices to look at other biomarkers in the eye such as amyloid plaques, which are known as evidence of the presence of Alzheimer's disease.

It has been a good year for Occuity, which last month launched a new fundraising campaign on the crowdfunding platform Seedrs.

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Featured image: (L-R): CTO & Co-Founder - Dr. Robin Taylor and CEO & Co-Founder - Dr. Dan Daly