The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing DeepUll, a medical diagnostics company developing diagnostic solutions for the early identification of sepsis and other acute infections, with a €20 million loan to finance its Research Development and Investigation (RD&I) activities for its platform to accelerate and improve accuracy in acute infections and sepsis diagnosis.
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The EIB loan will enable DeepUll to increase its RDI activity to further develop its automated diagnostics device, which can enable faster and more accurate early sepsis diagnosis than the present standard of care, in turn improving treatment efficacy and patient outcomes.
The EIB venture loan is financed under the Infectious Diseases Finance Facility set up as part of Horizon 2020, the European Union’s research and innovation programme for 2014-2020. The combination of the EIB’s expertise and the European Commission’s support with the InnovFin guarantee has made it possible to set up a financing package tailor-made to the needs of DeepUll.
Ricardo Mourinho Félix, European Investment Bank vice-president said: "Finding cures to global diseases can only be achieved through greater investment in innovation. The signature with DeepUll today bears witness to the impact that European finance can bring to companies developing new technology in the medical diagnostics field. Together we can address infectious diseases, whilst mitigating their impact on populations and economic growth at a global scale."
Jordi Carrera, chief executive officer at DeepUll, said: "This funding will support us in accelerating the development of our sepsis identification platform. We believe our product has tremendous potential in rapidly improving patient outcomes and streamlining hospital processes in order to identify at-risk patients as early as possible and provide support for treatment decisions."
DeepUll’s sepsis product is designed to detect more than 250 different pathogens and about 15 resistance genes in one hour starting from 10mL of whole blood. The product will generate phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility results in about eight hours, without requiring a positive blood culture. The product will be a desktop system with end-to-end automation with the aim to be placed in any clinical setting (laboratory, ER, ICU). The product will also utilise artificial intelligence to offer seamless medical decision support across all phases of patient management, from early disease recognition, to precise diagnostics, up to therapy guidance.
