£7.5m boost for products that gauge response to treatment
Government announces moneypot to drive development of novel new tests
The Government has announced £7.5m in funding for UK companies that come up with novel new systems and devices to reduce the number of patients who suffer adverse reactions to specific medical therapies.
The Technology Strategy Board (TSB), in partnership with the Department of Health (DH), is also looking for innovations that will help to identify which patients are at risk of not responding to certain treatments.
Up to £7.5m will be awarded through development contracts over the coming months, with decisions being made on the potential value of the proposed products to the health service.
The competition aims to bring together the different players necessary to evaluate the best ways to develop and implement such diagnostic tests, establish the clinical value chain and determine the potential for commercialisation and uptake of the tests. It will also establish if Stratified Medicine approaches can be used to improve the current clinical care pathway in the UK to address the risks of side effects or adverse reactions and/or identifying non-responders to treatments.
Proposals for funding must clearly state the economic benefits to be gained through exploitation of the product, and support will be available to companies seeking to develop products such as diagnostic tests or analytical algorithms capable of predicting either an adverse responder to a specific therapy, those who will not respond to a therapy, or how well a patient is responding to treatment.
The competition will be run through the Small Business research Initiative programme, which provides for development contracts to be 100% funded, and it will be run in two phases. Applicants successful in the first phase will receive funding to produce a development plan including a detailed assessment of the economic value of the product. The products with the best value combined with technical feasibility will be selected in phase two for development.
The competition opens on 26 March and the deadline for registration is 6 June. Applications must then be submitted by 13 June.
