iFAST Diagnostics develops a rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) system that delivers results in under four hours from blood or urine samples, significantly reducing the time to identify effective antibiotics. This technology addresses the critical issue of antimicrobial resistance by providing precise drug susceptibility data, which helps prevent the inappropriate use of antibiotics and improves patient outcomes.
Funding
£12M raised to dateRaised to date based on public sources. This may differ from the amount the company actually raised and is based only on what is publicly available on the internet.
CCEIUKKV+3Founders
Product
Problem
Current antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) methods take 48-72 hours, leading to delays in prescribing the correct antibiotics and contributing to the spread of antimicrobial resistance. This delay can result in patient deterioration, increased risk of sepsis, and higher mortality rates. The increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria necessitates faster and more accurate diagnostic tools.
Solution
iFAST Diagnostics offers a rapid AST system that delivers results in under 4 hours from blood or urine samples, significantly reducing the time required to identify effective antibiotics. The system extracts bacteria from raw samples and exposes them to a range of antibiotics. Using a microfluidic chip, the electrical properties of single bacteria are measured at high speed to determine antibiotic susceptibility. This rapid analysis enables clinicians to prescribe appropriate antibiotics sooner, minimizing the spread of resistant infections and improving patient outcomes. The iFAST system provides resistant/susceptible results and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) data for up to 15 drugs per sample.
Target Audience
The primary target audience includes hospital laboratories, clinicians, and healthcare providers seeking to improve antibiotic stewardship and reduce the time to effective treatment for bacterial infections.
Features
- Rapid AST results in under 3 hours for blood samples and 4 hours for raw urine samples
- High-throughput testing, with each reader performing over 25 tests per day
- Cost-effective at £30 per patient, cheaper than current gold standard methods
- Provides resistant/susceptible results and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) data for up to 15 drugs per sample
- Utilizes a microfluidic chip to measure the electrical properties of single bacteria at high speed
- Automated system minimizing labor requirements in hospital labs