Scandi pharma: Swede deal for Psyros Diagnostics

Psyros Diagnostics has signed an agreement to be acquired by the Swedish company, Prolight Diagnostics AB. Psyros’s ground-breaking Point-of-Care (POC) technology enables the measurement of disease-indicating molecules in extremely low concentrations–in ten minutes or less.

Psyros was acquired for 65 MSEK (£5.25m), while its Psyros-developed single-molecule counting POC system has a unique opportunity to develop further. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for POC testing has increased significantly with rapid, simple and efficient testing in close proximity to a patient proving extremely valuable.

“To our knowledge there are no other POC systems capable of offering this performance with such simplicity,” explained Ulf Bladin, CEO Prolight Diagnostics AB. “Psyros’s technology is patent-pending and multiplex-capable, and is made up of a single-use test cartridge and dedicated analyser. A small drop of blood is required to perform the test. The system measures biomarkers in around ten minutes or fewer and is easy to use.”

Biomarkers are naturally occurring molecules, genes or characteristics. Through these characteristics, a particular pathological or physiological process, or disease can be identified, enabling a faster and easier diagnosis.

Potential future applications for the technology include neurological pathologies such as dementia or traumatic brain injury, immune system dysfunction such as sepsis or autoimmune disease and virus detection. This virus detection would include COVID-19, a significant development considering the long turnaround time for PCR results, which can be several hours or more, depending on the system.

Meanwhile, the technology could bring about significant changes in POC testing and clinical diagnostics.

“Prolight believes that Psyros’ competence and experience is a very important addition to the joint companies’ continued development,” added Bladin. “Together, we plan to develop the most innovative POC systems on the market, not only for cardiac biomarkers, such as high sensitivity troponin, but also for many other clinical areas, including multiplex applications where several biomarkers are tested simultaneously from the same sample.”