Press release 2016-06-22
AlphaHelix has its own platform for screening of MRSA; the most common form of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Over the past year the company has devoted substantial resources to commercialize this platform so that the technology should be made more accessible. In this work, the liquid handling robot Rob™ is an essential ingredient.
The subsidiary Techtum Lab will in the coming week set up a system for screening of MRSA in Tampere, Finland. In the first step it is about validating the system at the customer, and by fall implementation of a full installation. The system is of the same type as those currently used by among others Karolinska University Hospitals in Solna and Huddinge, but with a greater proportion of the AlphaHelix group's own products.
The business model is the same as used in Sweden where Techtum owns the equipment and is responsible for all services. The customer pays per sample. Assuming that validation in Finland passes as intended, it will give the business revenues of 2 MSEK per year for the Group. The contract period is 3-5 years.
"We have long known that our platform for MRSA is competitive but we have not been able to simplify the concept so it is possible to sell easily. Now we have a completely separate product for which we can provide secure quotes; with the certainty that it works", Techtum CEO Håkan Evefors says in a statement.
"MRSA is a worldwide health problem. The costs for the isolation of infected patients strain all healthcare budgets in Europe. Sample costs are in itself a big problem for many caregivers. Since the development of our platform was completed, in a short time we have left several quotes including the UK and Finland. We have always wanted to develop within diagnostics. With Rob™ integrated, we can soon say that we have a completely self-diagnostic platform for MRSA and VRE", Mikael Havsjö from AlphaHelix Technologies adds.
Original press release (in Swedish) at Aktietorget