20th Jun 2018 09:57
LONDON (Alliance News) - Genedrive PLC's said Wednesday it was awarded a multi-partner grant to develop a pharmacogenetic test to fight antibiotic-related hearing loss in newborn children.
The molecular diagnostics company was awarded GBP550,000 of funding, which it expects to account as income, which will be matched to the costs it will incur over the two-year project.
The grant, given by UK National Institute for Health Research's Invention for Innovation programme, will go towards developing a genetic test, providing results within an hour, to identify predisposition in babies to suffer from permanent hearing loss due to the use of the antibiotic gentamicin.
"Due to an identified genetic predisposition, certain individuals develop irreversible hearing loss when exposed to gentamicin, an antibiotic used to treat several types of bacterial infections," Genedrive said.
"Antibiotic treatment should start within the first hour after admission, but current lab-based genetic tests are not able to return actionable results within that timeframe."
The project is expected to commence immediately and last for two years. It will include an implementation phase in some NHS hospitals during the second year.
Shares were trading down 9.6% at 33.0 pence each.
Related Shares:
Genedrive