Novalis invests in Enzyre to support development of Enzypad, a breakthrough hand-held diagnostic and monitoring device
Enzyre, a developer of breakthrough diagnostic technology to bring the lab to the patient, announced today that Novalis Biotechnology Incubation, through its seed fund, participated as co-financer in the Euro 1.4 million Corona Bridge Loan granted by the Dutch government in support of innovative start-ups and scale-ups.
Enzyre, a spin-out from Radboud University Medical Center in The Netherlands, was established to develop an innovative near patient test (NPT) device named Enzypad to measure biomarkers in body fluids. There is a growing need for NPT tools, which offer patients and healthcare workers the possibility for remote personalized and data-based disease management via telemedicine, avoiding hospital visits and reducing healthcare costs.
The first application of Enzypad will revolutionize monitoring of hemophilia by providing a real-time picture of a patient’s blood coagulation status. The result of each test made by a patient is sent automatically to the treating physicians through an app on a mobile phone. In December 2019, Enzyre signed a collaboration with Takeda for the development of Enzypad in congenital bleeding disorders, validating this innovative approach.
Dirk Pollet, CEO of Enzyre commented: “We are pleased to welcome Novalis Biotechnology Incubation to our investor base. The Novalis team is very well aligned with Enzyre’s strategy to “bring the laboratory to the patient”, enabling them to avoid hospital visits. We firmly believe there is a huge demand for technology that empowers patients and allows healthcare workers to provide the best therapy without delay and increased cost. The Enzypad is able to meet this demand.”
Prof. Wim Van Criekinge, co-founder of Novalis added: “Near patient testing presents a major opportunity in today’s world to obtain an improved treatment outcome for patients. More and better data is an essential element in our drive to advance healthcare. We were impressed by the Enzyre team and Enzypad technology, which has many application areas beyond coagulation testing. Our investment in Enzyre perfectly matches our strategy of investing in innovative breakthrough technology in life sciences.”
About Novalis
Novalis Biotech Incubation provides seed funding and ongoing support to biotechnology and life sciences companies. Novalis incubates and advances its own ideas or supports existing innovative life science start-ups. Our core competence lies in the interaction between bioinformatics, genomics, and digitalization in the life sciences industry. We strongly believe in applying innovative information technology to advance the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of a disease. For more information please visit www.noval.is.
About Enzyre
Enzyre, based in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, is a spin-out from Radboud University Medical Center, developing Enzypad, a near patient diagnostic and monitoring device initially focused on blood coagulation. Enzyre’s platform technology is unique as it requires just a small volume of blood and is able to measure up to twelve (12) biomarkers simultaneously without any laboratory infrastructure; at home, on the road or in a critical care setting. Enzyre’s proprietary technology is a small hand-held diagnostic tool using disease specific single use microfluidic cartridges with high sensitivity and specificity. It has broad applicability in several disease areas.