A cost and time effective blood test to detect multiple bloodborne diseases

Project Information

Safe-Blood

Grant agreement ID: 826934

DOI

10.3030/826934

Project closed

EC signature date 10 August 2018

Start date 1 September 2018

End date 28 February 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

WAMA DIAGNOSTICS (SWITZERLAND) SA
Switzerland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Safe-Blood (A cost and time effective blood test to detect multiple bloodborne diseases)

Reporting period: 2018-09-01 to 2019-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Blood donations save many lives, but it is crucial to ensure safety of blood products prior to transfusion. The increasing demand of donor blood and ongoing worldwide emergence of new pathogens and variants will pose a tremendous burden on blood banks in the near future. These services make the blood screening analysis with separate tests (one test for one disease). Therefore, a streamlined method would help Blood Banks to attend this increasing demand.

WAMA has demonstrated the feasibility of Safe-Blood, a multiplex serological test that can detect up to six known pathogens in blood. Safe-Blood is the first multiplex test that will be offered to the blood screening market and will increase the efficiency, as well as cost-effectiveness, of the routine workflow of blood donation screening.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

To assess the commercial attractiveness of Safe-Blood, WAMA Diagnostics performed an in-depth market analysis to understand the main players and the tendencies of blood banks, researched the needs and demands of large European blood banks regarding blood screening though interviews, and identified potential threats to its technology.

In order to progress its business in the European market, WAMA Diagnostics also defined an intellectual property management strategy and identified potential future partners to develop the equipment necessary for the Safe-Blood test.

The technological feasibility assessment showed that, for the short-term progress of the project, WAMA shall partner with a large, experienced company with an established presence in the European market.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

WAMA developed and demonstrated the feasibility of the Safe-Blood test with a prototype for multiplex Chemiluminescence Immunoassay (CLIA) that is able to simultaneously detect six pathogens through 11 markers.

Information obtained in this project shows that the European blood screening market is moderately saturated with large, well-established companies supplying serological test to public and private blood organizations. However, serological testing is performed by using different test assays for each pathogen, instead of using one test for all screened disease. In this regard, Safe-Blood will clearly be a significant improvement for the routine workflows of blood banks because it will reduce hands-on time and overall expenses of using multiple systems.

The SAFE BLOOD test screens up to 6 bloodborne pathogens simultaneously in one well.