We at Hutman Diagnostics have a dream: saving lives by significantly reducing the timeframe for detecting infectious diseases. We are a team of over 20 well-educated professionals with at least four years’ experience each. Our work is never just the result of one person and, as a team, I know we will achieve our goals, as well as significantly reducing costs within the healthcare sector.
In the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s Better tests, better care report of January 2015, the organisation stated: “Rapid, accurate diagnosis could have saved lives.” This fact drives all of our professionals to perform at their best, every single day. Effectively, the quote states the current market need, and we aim to satisfy that need. “The projected Alena platform would meet these clinical and laboratory requirements”, stated Dr Reno Frei, Head of Microbiology at the University Hospital of Basel, giving credence to our work.
Our instruments and the consumables we produce have a low capital cost. In a sense, our business concept is the same as that of Nespresso, using machines and disposable cartridges
A modern method
So, what is it all about? In over 85 percent of today’s detection of infectious diseases, the ‘gold standard’ (culturing bacteria of a patient) is used to detect bacteria, fungi, viruses and resistances in a patient who is in pain. If any infectious diseases detected are not then properly treated, they can lead to death. The gold standard method is widely accepted, which is a similar situation to some fifty years ago when IBM was the standard for IT. Clearly, this is not an appropriate state of affairs, and it is one that the Alena platform aims to disrupt as quickly as possible. As Dr Marc Pfeifer, Professor of Molecular Diagnostics Systems at the University of Applied Sciences, stated: “The window of opportunity for better healthcare solutions, i.e. better infectious disease diagnostics, is now, not tomorrow.”
Hutman Diagnostics has, together with our Canadian partner Axela, developed a micro-array DNA-based technology that will detect infectious diseases in just a single test, and will be able to detect more than 100 pathogens (if required) within roughly one hour. Compare this with the current gold standard, which takes anywhere from one to four days – longer than a return flight across the Atlantic!
Clinicians need specific answers to specific questions. When asked ‘does a particular patient have a bone and joint infection, and if so, which of the roughly 30 bacteria is actually the reason for the pain?’, we answer within the clinically relevant timeframe of one hour. When asked ‘does the patient have resistances that cannot be treated by the standard antibiotics that would be applied?’, to repeat myself – we answer these essential questions within one hour. One hour is clinically relevant because it normally takes one hour from a patient being accepted in an emergency unit to when they actually see a doctor. It makes a huge difference for the doctor to already have accurate test results, rather than flying blind.
Wide appeal
There is a real market need to transform the existing methodology and move the timeframe from one to four days to as short as one hour. Hutman Diagnostics plans to bring the Alena technology, which is IP-protected, to market within the next two years, beginning with European and US markets.
The Alena value proposition is compelling, whether compared to the existing culture-based gold standard or competitive nucleic acid detection systems. The Alena platform will be capable of multiplexing (detecting at the same time) in excess of 100 pathogens on a single chip. This includes information on bacterial resistances to antibiotics while the patient is still undergoing initial evaluation. Our novel fluidics technology facilitates full automation in an inexpensive, consumable format.
One very important factor for our success is that we have established a global network of microbiology laboratories, from where we collect real patient samples. This then allows us to develop ‘probes’ (replicas of actual bacteria in a sick patient) to ensure the tests we do are substantive and can be relied upon. What’s more, aside from the detection of infectious agents (be they bacteria, viruses or fungal pathogens), probes developed by our technology can be used in other applications. For example, they can detect any nucleic acid-based condition in humans, animals, food, air or water – indeed, a broad application is possible. However, we’re making sure not to get carried away for now; our first objective is to enter the market for infectious diseases.
The cost factor
Facilitating this, our instruments and the consumables we produce have a low capital cost. In a sense, our business concept is the same as that of Nespresso, using machines and disposable cartridges. This will allow Alena products to compete in the broad infectious disease market around the world. This is a very important factor for the commercial success of any product. Furthermore, we have been able to identify competitive manufacturers for both the platform and the consumables. In fact, we estimate that the consumable (the per-patient test) will be six to 10 times cheaper than the market price, a real dream for any investor.
Assuming a patient can be treated just one day earlier than with the current methodology (the gold standard, which is in reality often three or four days slower), then at least one day of hospital costs is saved. A one-day hospital stay in Europe costs around £1,000, not including medication or the costs of an operation, or any other special care. If we multiply this by 100,000 patients (just an assumption to demonstrate the validity of our thesis) in hospitals every year that will be identified one day earlier, then already £100,000,000 is saved. We know that, on average, at least two days are actually saved, therefore the theoretical potential for only 100,000 patients is already £200,000,000.
Our first clients will be microbiology laboratories, connected to larger hospitals of more than 1,000 beds. There are more than 350 hospitals with over 1,000 beds in Europe and the US, not to speak of the rest of the world. The next step for all of us involved with Alena is to focus on the execution of the remaining two-year project, so we are able to achieve our dream of better treatment and lower healthcare costs for all.