German spinout raises over €3M to tackle cervical cancer with a test that works anywhere without electricity or a lab — TFN

• Intu Diagnostics, a Fraunhofer spinout primarily based in Leipzig, has raised €1.1 million in a bridge spherical, bringing its whole funding to greater than €3 million. The spherical was backed by BSV Ventures and SAB.
• The startup has created a PCR-quality HPV take a look at that works with out a lab, electrical energy, or educated employees. Customers see outcomes from a color change in simply half-hour.
• Cervical most cancers causes about 350,000 deaths amongst ladies annually. Round 85% of those circumstances happen in international locations that lack ample laboratory services for routine screening.

Yearly, about 350,000 women die from cervical cancer, though most circumstances could possibly be prevented. The most important problem is logistics, not medication. PCR testing, the gold customary for detecting HPV, requires a lab, educated employees, and specialised gear that many locations lack.

Intu Diagnostics, a firm from the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology in Leipzig, desires to take away these obstacles. The corporate lately raised €1.1 million in a bridge spherical, bringing its whole funding to over €3 million.

BSV Ventures, a Baltic deep-tech and life science fund with workplaces in Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland, supported the spherical, together with the Saxonian Improvement Financial institution and a number of other enterprise angels.

The funds will go towards defending mental property, operating pilot manufacturing trials, and preparing for the following seed spherical.

What Intu has constructed

Intu Diagnostics, based in 2023 in Leipzig by Dr Skaiste Arbaciauskaite and Dr Dirk Kuhlmeier, is creating an all-in-one diagnostic cartridge that detects a pathogen’s genetic materials utilizing the identical methodology as lab PCR checks, however with none further gear.

There isn’t any want for a reader machine, energy supply, app, or particular coaching. Customers simply gather a pattern, put it within the cartridge, and examine for a color change inside half-hour. The package consists of every thing wanted.

This methodology could be very completely different from customary fast antigen checks, which detect proteins and supply sooner outcomes however usually miss infections. Intu’s platform works on the molecular stage, which the corporate says means fewer false negatives and no want for the same old lab setup for molecular checks.

The primary use of Intu’s platform is HPV screening in ladies’s well being, an space that’s attracting extra investor consideration. For instance, Teal Health in the US recently raised $10 million for at-home cervical most cancers screening, and French startup En Carta Diagnostics got $1.5 million for inexpensive paper-based HPV checks.

Intu plans to develop its platform to check for respiratory viruses like COVID-19, RSV, and flu, and later for sexually transmitted infections, malaria, and tuberculosis. These ailments usually have an effect on individuals in low-resource areas. In 2020, a prototype was examined in Tanzania in collaboration with the Kilimanjaro Scientific Analysis Institute to diagnose eye infections attributable to Chlamydia trachomatis, the main infectious reason behind blindness worldwide.

The market Intu is concentrating on

Cervical most cancers is the fourth commonest most cancers in ladies worldwide. The WHO stories about 660,000 new cases and 350,000 deaths in 2022, with 85% of circumstances in creating international locations. In these locations, HPV causes practically 12% of all tumours in ladies. Late prognosis results in worse outcomes, and poor screening infrastructure makes issues tougher. Despite the fact that ladies’s well being is rising quick in enterprise capital, getting diagnostics into low-resource markets stays an enormous problem.

The purpose-of-care diagnostics market, which gives checks that ship outcomes near the affected person somewhat than in central labs, is extremely aggressive. Nonetheless, Intu faces much less direct competitors.

Abbott’s ID NOW and Cepheid’s Xpert platforms present fast molecular outcomes however require powered units. Becton Dickinson and bioMérieux work in central labs. Proper now, not one of the massive firms gives a molecular take a look at that’s electricity-free and instrument-free for shoppers or low-resource settings.

What comes subsequent

The bridge spherical is supposed to assist Intu attain necessary objectives for its subsequent seed funding, equivalent to securing mental property, creating a manufacturable cartridge, and amassing pilot knowledge prepared for manufacturing.

Since its €1.8 million pre-seed spherical in 2024, the workforce has grown to 12 individuals and has participated in business occasions throughout three continents. The corporate plans to launch shopper checks in 2027.

One of many important challenges for the following seed spherical is demonstrating that the product can ship molecular-level accuracy and function with minimal infrastructure, whereas remaining inexpensive for the ladies who want it most. The bridge spherical helps the corporate maintain transferring towards this objective.