SBRI Healthcare, an Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) initiative, in partnership with the Health Innovation Network, has awarded £1m for the development of 11 innovations that improve infection prevention and control to prevent the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
The NHS identifies antimicrobial resistance as a key priority requiring NHS action on prevention, and reiterates the UK’s 20-year vision for AMR which outlines the aim for a world in which antimicrobial resistance is effectively contained, controlled and mitigated.
Funded by the AAC, SBRI Healthcare 'Competition 25: AMR’ was launched in July 2024 as a Phase 1 development funding competition. The projects will run for up to six months, with the aim to demonstrate technical and commercial feasibility.
Under the overall theme of antimicrobial resistance, the competition sought early-stage innovations in the following four priority areas:
- Point of care diagnostics, monitoring, and susceptibility testing
- Prescribing decision support and risk stratification
- Novel care delivery methods
- Infection prevention and control (IPC).
The competition was open to single companies and organisations from the private, public, and third sectors, including large corporates, small and medium enterprises, charities, universities and NHS providers.
Verena Stocker, Director of Innovation, Research, Life Sciences and Strategy, NHS England and Chief Executive Officer, Accelerated Access Collaborative, said:
“The Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Healthcare awards help the NHS to develop new technologies and solutions to address some of the most pressing healthcare challenges facing society. These innovations were selected because they have the potential to make a big difference to tackling antimicrobial resistance. By supporting the most promising innovations, the NHS will continue to evolve, helping to meet more patients’ needs and encouraging more innovators to come forward with innovative ideas that benefit all.”
Bobby Kaura, CEO and Founder of Pathway Bio, and Co-Chair of the SBRI Healthcare AMR panel, said:
"SBRI Healthcare awards fund innovations to help NHS England address unmet health and social care needs. Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a global threat, as modern medicine depends on antibiotics to prevent and treat infections. These funded projects aim to combat AMR by reducing antibiotic use, developing alternative treatments, and supporting NHS staff in preventing, diagnosing, and treating infections more effectively. Investing in early-stage companies, and helping to de-risk these technologies, is a critical path in bringing novel technologies into the NHS to address a high-societal burden and unmet need."
The programme will additionally sponsor awarded projects to undergo the NICE Metatool to help optimise their approach to addressing gaps in development plans and evidence generation, and to identify the potential next steps to bring their product to market.
The SBRI Healthcare 'Competition 25: AMR, Phase 1' awarded projects are:
Imperial College London - awarded £100,000 - Development and Evaluation of a host Transcript tEst in Children for rapid TrIage of Viral/bacterial illness in Emergency departments (DETECTIVE)
MARPLE (MagMove Assisted RNA Purification and Lateral flow Evaluation) is a novel point-of-care diagnostic platform that uses mRNA biomarkers to rapidly differentiate bacterial from viral infections in under 10 minutes. The DETECTIVE project aims to optimise and validate MARPLE, improving accuracy and reducing unnecessary antibiotic use to combat antimicrobial resistance.
Vitec Microgenix Limited - awarded £53,409 - Infection Prevention and Control through the Implementation of Novel Antimicrobial Technologies within Healthcare Settings
Vitec Microgenix technology continuously kills microbes on surfaces and in the air, potentially reducing the number of Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs), improving patient safety and achieving cost savings. The aim of the project is to design a robust clinical trial to demonstrate the technology's efficacy.
iFAST Diagnostics Limited - awarded £99,817 - Direct from Blood Rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Test
An automated system to extract bacteria from positive blood cultures to enable ultra-rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing, giving results in 3 hours compared with 2-3 days from current clinical methods.
CEXAL Ltd - awarded £99,999 - Development of a rapid and modular phenotypic test for quantitative Urinary Tract Infection detection and antimicrobial susceptibility in 30 minutes
FluoCDx is a rapid, modular diagnostic test for UTIs, providing culture-like, definitive results on effective antibiotics within 30 minutes.
Mackwell Health Limited - awarded £99,738 - Infection Prevention using Next Generation UV-C LED Technology
This study will develop the next generation of UV-C high-level disinfection equipment using new LEDs reducing cycle times by up to 70%. The effectiveness and safety of the process, and the potential CO2e savings will be evidenced, and on-site studies will demonstrate the practicality of the process in time-critical applications.
University of Bristol - awarded £81,286 - A Novel Approach to Preventing Encrustation and Infection in Long-term Indwelling Urinary Catheters
The technology aims to tackle catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) and prevent bacterial biofilm formation and encrustation of urinary catheters by regulating the local pH through integrated pH modulating molecules within the catheters.
Presymptom Health Limited - awarded £99,993 - Development of the InfectiClear test onto Near Patient and Point-of-Care NHS
Presymptom Health technology leverages host response to determine infection status direct from blood, using existing NHS instrumentation. The first product, InfectiClear®, will rule out infection with up to 98% Negative Predictive Value. The SBRI Healthcare award will support development of a rapid workflow to provide immediate results.
Seroxo Limited - awarded £99,358 - SAMuRAI-LIT - Slashing AMR with the AI-enabled LIT
The Leukocyte ImmunoTest™ (LIT™) is Seroxo’s finger-prick POC blood test that assesses real-time neutrophil function through a patented 10-minute assay, and has been shown as superior to current biomarkers for clinical applications such as sepsis, cancer, and organ perfusion/transplantation. The main Phase 1 aim is around initial improvements of the reader and reagents.
Oxford Simcell Limited - awarded £83,316 - Development of a SimCell vaccine against S. aureus infection
SimCells are genome-free, non-replicating bacterial cells exhibiting all the important surface features of living cells, but which cannot grow or divide. This makes them ideal candidates for whole-cell vaccines against pathogenic bacteria. Oxford SimCell Ltd is developing SimCell-based vaccines against high-priority pathogens, especially antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus.
Microplate Dx Limited - awarded £99,875 - Development of a rapid, cost-effective, point of care antibiotic susceptibility test for urinary tract infections
Microplate Dx, an award-winning diagnostics company, are developing 'RapidPlate': a rapid, cost-effective antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) enabling clinicians, at the point-of-care, to confidently select the best choice of antibiotic to treat a patient’s infection in under 1 hour, significantly quicker than the current gold standard of days, reducing antimicrobial resistance and ultimately, saving lives.
ProtonDx Ltd - awarded £98,892 - Rapid assessment of aetiology and severity of febrile illness to optimise antibiotic use and clinical care
ProtonDX will adapt and validate Lacewing, its innovative diagnostic technology, into a portable device that can identify bacterial infection in <20 minutes using a drop of blood. The test will “read” the immune response of the patient to understand the source and severity of their illness, rather than finding specific pathogens.
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About SBRI Healthcare
SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative) Healthcare provides funding and support to innovators to develop solutions that tackle existing unmet needs faced by the NHS. The programme aims to improve patient care, increase efficiency in the NHS, and support the UK economy. The programme provides funding and support to early-stage projects enabling testing for business feasibility and technology development, as well as to more mature products to support real world implementation studies. SBRI Healthcare is funded by the Accelerated Access Collaborative and delivered in partnership with the Health Innovation Network.
About the Accelerated Access Collaborative
The Accelerated Access Collaborative is a unique partnership between patient groups, government bodies, industry and the NHS. It delivers ambitious programmes to ensure the NHS is in the best place to improve patient outcomes and reduce health inequalities through research and innovation. It does this by identifying the best new medicines, medical devices, diagnostics and digital products. It supports providers and integrated care systems to make them available to patients as quickly as possible.
About the Health Innovation Network
There are 15 health innovation networks across England, established by NHS England in 2013 to spread innovation at pace and scale – improving health and generating economic growth. Each health innovation network works across a distinct geography serving a different population in each region. As the only bodies that connect NHS and academic organisations, local authorities, the third sector and industry, health innovation networks are catalysts that create the right conditions to facilitate change across whole health and social care economies, with a clear focus on improving outcomes for patients.