Project description
A home kit for blood sampling
Kidney transplant patients receive immunosuppressive drugs and must continuously monitor their levels through blood sampling to ensure they remain within the therapeutic window. The EU-funded ISACS project conducted a feasibility assessment and developed a business plan for the use of Capitainer’s home blood sampling devices in the field of therapeutic drug monitoring for kidney- and liver transplant patients. The system is portable, cost effective and easy to use, and the sample is sent to the hospital via regular mail. The system allows transplanted patients to avoid frequent visits to the hospital for traditional phlebotomy and ensures that they are regularly monitored to prevent organ rejection.
Objective
Capitainer AB aims to develop a business plan for the broad-scale commercial launch of Capitainer-B – an innovative tool for quantitative blood microsampling. For kidney transplant patients, a new organ eliminates the need of frequent dialysis and improves the quality of life, but to prevent rejection of the new organ by the patient’s own immune system, lifelong treatment with immunosuppressive drugs is necessary. To ensure that the concentration of drugs remain within their therapeutic windows, drug levels are continuously measured through blood testing after transplantation: TDM - Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. Traditional phlebotomy at the hospital consumes substantial resources from the healthcare system and for patients, frequent visits to the hospital/test station is a source of inconvenience. As such, the development of an accurate “use-at-home” blood sampling tool that can alleviate this heavy burden is in great demand. Filling this market gap, Capitainer AB proposes Capitainer-B - a portable, cost effective and easy-to-use microsampling system which enables the patient to take a blood sample at home through a finger prick. The sample can be sent via regular mail to the laboratory for analysis. Our design philosophy was to create a reliable and easy to use tool for monitoring drug concentrations in blood, thereby reducing the risk of organ refusal. From the business perspective, Capitainer-B expands into the market space delineated by the variables of volume accuracy, patient proximity, mobility and low cost. The device has already attracted attention of one EU-based medical centre in Germany (Labor Dessau GmbH) which resulted in a research partnership and low scale sales. In this Phase 1 Project, Capitainer AB intends to prepare a multispectral market feasibility assessment for Capitainer-B. Furthermore, we plan to study the market capacity for the further Capitainer-B-type devices, aiming at providing a comprehensive blood testing platform.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
171 45 Solna
Sweden
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.