Project description
A simple blood test for preeclampsia diagnosis
Preeclampsia is a pregnancy complication associated with high blood pressure and the presence of protein in urine. Most of the time, preeclampsia goes unnoticed, and existing ultrasound-based methods for the detection of the condition early during pregnancy are expensive and require expert personnel. To address this medical need, the EU-funded IPOG project analysed thousands of pregnant women blood samples by mass spectrometry to identify preeclampsia-associated biomarkers. The work has led to the development of a diagnostic blood test capable of detecting preeclampsia months before the appearance of any clinical symptoms. Implementation of the IPOG test is expected to prevent health issues during pregnancy, ensuring the well-being of mother and baby.
Objective
Preeclampsia is responsible for the deaths of more than 70,000 mothers and half a million babies each year. Identifying those mothers at risk of preeclampsia is difficult. The current gold standard in prenatal care does not detect the disease early enough to change the course of the disease.
MDx has developed PrePsia™, a simple blood test which identifies an expectant mother’s risk of preterm preeclampsia, up to 5 months before most women will display clinical symptoms. Clinicians can now use this simple tool, to personalise pregnancy care, including the initiation of treatments in early pregnancy that can dramatically reduce the incidence of preterm preeclampsia by 62%3. In the EU, with about 5.1 million births per annum (2015 data) , treating the women identified at high risk for preterm preeclampsia by PrePsia™ has the potential to prevent over 37,000 cases of preterm preeclampsia and its associated severe outcomes, every year.
The only other test in the market that screens for preterm preeclampsia, is complex and requires for specialist ultrasound scans to be taken, which are expensive, subjective and require for dedicated ultrasound equipment and operators.
MDx has a portfolio of IP assets, as developed by the company over the last 5 years, that will protect PrePsia™ and also have significant commercial potential beyond just the realm of preeclampsia.
MDx has team of successful serial entrepreneurs coupled with globally renewed technical expertise to deliver PrePsia™ to the market and build a long term self-sustaining European company.
By year 4 MDx will have annualised revenues of €69 million and employment for 50 people while fulfilling its ambition to become a world leader in innovative pregnancy diagnostics.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineobstetricsfetal medicine
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment
- natural scienceschemical sciencesanalytical chemistrymass spectrometry
- engineering and technologymedical engineeringmedical laboratory technologylaboratory samples analysis
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesacousticsultrasound
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
T12 Cork
Ireland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.