Last month, SBRI Healthcare supported company Cambridge Respiratory Innovations Limited (CRiL) won two awards in nine days, for their technology and plans to improve care and treatment for patients with long term respiratory conditions.
On 17 April, CRiL won the Medimmune Digital Health Technology Challenge, organised by the Cambridge Network. The event explored how digital health can innovate care for respiratory diseases, and the opportunities for technology in healthcare. Medimmune is the research and development arm of Astra Zeneca, pioneering innovative research worldwide across key therapeutic areas.
CRiL gained further recognition for their innovations by winning the Perfect Pitch competition for Next Generation Healthcare at BioTrinity 2018 organised by OBN, on 25 April in London. BioTrinity events bring together life sciences companies across the globe under one roof to help shape the future of healthcare.
Jeremy Walsh, CRiL CEO said: "We were thrilled to win the Medimmune Digital Health Technology Challenge. Our N-Tidal technology was judged on technical feasibility, marketing strategy and financial projections. We also received a £20,000 prize and are looking forward to building a relationship with Medimmune. Winning the Perfect Pitch completion nine days later at BioTrinity was another endorsement of our technology and plans, and we enjoyed the challenge of compressing our story into a three minute pitch. This panel of healthcare investors and advisers made their decision based on the person and technology most likely to be financed and succeed - a super end to an important conference."
CRiL has been awarded two development contracts by SBRI Healthcare for its innovative N-Tidal personal respiratory monitors. The first was in 2014 to develop an advanced prototype and complete a clinical evaluation with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients. The second was awarded in December 2017 to develop a market-ready low cost personal asthma monitor. CRiL has also been awarded several grants from Innovate UK.
CRiL has developed a unique LED-based CO2 sensor and incorporated it into a low-cost personal respiratory monitor. Based on normal tidal breathing and used for just over a minute twice daily, N-Tidal delivers rich, consistent data of a direct measure of lung performance. CRiL is using advanced analysis and machine learning on the tidal breathing CO2 waveform shape, which is an established but under-used respiratory biomarker.
Karen Livingstone, National Director of SBRI Healthcare said: "We are delighted that CRiL has received these awards, which recognise how this technology will transform care and support for patients with respiratory conditions. Eastern AHSN identified the original need for better management of COPD, and SBRI Healthcare has helped to fund and progress development of the N-Tidal monitor. There is a real unmet need for this technology, to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs."