Pioneering QuantuMDx launches Q-POC device after decade of development

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A Newcastle company that has won multimillion-pound backing from the Government and Bill Gates has launched a device that aims to save thousands of lives around the world.

QuantuMDx has spent more than a decade developing the Q-POC device, a portable system that can diagnose diseases on site with results obtained within 30 minutes.

The device has particular uses in the developing world, where people can often live hundreds of miles and many hours from the nearest health facilities, making the diagnosis of serious diseases all but impossible.

The company’s systems aim to provide quick diagnosis of a range of diseases, including TB, malaria and sexually transmitted diseases.

After years of development work, QuantuMDx will launch Q-POC with a test for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

Chief executive Jonathan O’Halloran said: “Q-POC represents a new class of molecular diagnostic device: it’s fast, battery operated, can multiplex and is so simple to operate that anyone can be trained to use it. It’s a true point of care diagnostic system.

“Our Q-POC system is future-proof, and packs a great deal of complexity and power behind its modern lines and simple operation. Our SARS-CoV-2 test is just the first in a portfolio designed to meet real clinical needs.

“Over the next few years, we’ll be driving menu expansion, ensuring we remain at the forefront of molecular, point of care diagnostics globally.”

QuantuMDx was awarded £16m UK government funding last March to develop Q-POC and disposable cassettes to allow for rapid testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In 2016 it also won significant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop its work on the testing of tuberculosis. A few months later it linked up with the Global Good Fund to work on a similar project targeting cervical cancer and since then the company has secured a number of rounds of multimillion-pound funding to develop its device.

QuantuMDx was formed in Sussex in 2008 and spent some of its early years in South Africa, but set up base in Newcastle in 2011 when it was attracted to life sciences facilities at the Centre for Life.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the company’s laboratories on Melbourne Street in February to see its work in helping the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.