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Drug Hunter - drug analyzer for in situ quantitative analysis of illegal drugs in oral fluid

Project description

A game-changing solution for onsite drug testing

The rise in illegal drug use, together with the absence of reliable onsite testing solutions have left law enforcement and medical professionals in a bind. Traditional immunoassay tests fail to quantify drug levels, leaving the severity of intoxication uncertain until lab results arrive. Addressing this gap, the SafePAS start-up, led by three women scientists, is developing Drug Hunter – a portable, AI-powered drug analyser. Drug Hunter uses advanced capillary electrophoresis and deep UV fluorescence to provide lab-grade accuracy in detecting and measuring multiple drugs in oral fluid. As such, this EU-funded project aims to navigate regulatory challenges, refine business strategies, and build partnerships to successfully bring Drug Hunter to market, revolutionising onsite drug testing.

Objective

SafePAS (Safe Portable Analytical Systems) is a deep-tech start-up led by three women-scientists-entrepreneurs aiming to bring to market portable and accurate AI-based analyzers for Agri, Med, and Health Tech. We want to bring our new solution, Drug Hunter, to the drug testing market. Drug Hunter is a portable drug analyzer that measures quantities of illegal drugs in oral fluid, even in multidrug use cases. It can be used onsite by law enforcement agencies, hospitals, clinical laboratories, and workplaces. Our core technologies are capillary electrophoresis, widely recognized as a golden standard for DNA analysis, and ultrasensitive deep UV fluorescence, facilitated by AI-based expert systems. Therefore, Drug Hunter provides lab-grade accuracy for simultaneous identification and quantification of illegal drugs in oral fluid, indicating the recent drug use as well as the severity of possible drug intoxication. There are currently no reliable drug testing solutions on the market (only mainstream immunoassay tests) for onsite use, and none of them can measure the quantities of drugs in the sample. So far, the strength of drug intoxication can only be determined in a laboratory using confirmatory methods. Increasing supportive regulations are expected to boost the growth of the drug testing market in the upcoming years. Nevertheless, Drug Hunter's market launch faces multiple challenges, that should be overcome by SafePAS. The current proposal aims to map the regulatory requirements and markets' peculiarities, fitting Drug Hunter to regulations. Our initial business model will be tested and improved, the marketing strategy will be developed, tested, and validated, and the distributors', business partners, and customers' networks will be built. We will conduct pre-clinical studies with our partners, opening new customer segments such as clinical labs. WomenTech EU will help us scale up Drug Hunter's market launch and SafePAS growth.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIE-2022-SCALEUP-02

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Coordinator

SAFEPAS OU
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 75 000,00
Address
KOORE TN 1-2
76905 HARKU VALD
Estonia

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Eesti Eesti Põhja-Eesti
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data
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