Lifecare has recently concluded successful in-vitro test results of the miniaturized Sencell sensor. This represents a milestone achievement of the Sencell development, and the impact of the in-vitro tests reaches even further. Learn more about the importance of these test results, as well as further increase of staff in the Lifecare Group, a nationwide press coverage in several Norwegian regional papers, a continued positive revenue at Lifecare Laboratory, and download Lifecares updated investor presentation.
Milestone achievement – what does this mean for Lifecare?
In Q2 2021, Lifecare AS initiated a strategic restructuring process with the aim to establish fully controlled proprietary processes for technology and product development. The goal was to ensure solid preparations for the first-in-human pilot clinical studies, and in September 2021 Lifecare communicated “Prototype fabrication for clinical trials” and “Conduct human clinical trials – pilot study” as milestones for 1H 2022.
June 2nd, 2022, Lifecare announced a successful, high quality and reproduceable in-vitro test of the miniaturized Sencell sensor for glucose measurement at Lifecare NanoBioSensors. This successful test was the final step to fulfill the milestone “Prototype fabrication for clinical trials”.
Confirmation of functionality in vitro is obviously a crucial and necessary final preparational step to bring a medical device to the phase of clinical studies – and on this base we are now ready to move forward with our first-in-human studies, in accordance with the previously announced timeline.
The milestone achievement represents significant progress and groundbreaking scientific confirmation. Most important is the fact that the Nano Tunneling Resistor (NTR) sensors with a size of few tens of nanometers were manufactured by Lifecare and have the expected functionality. This is key to miniaturize Sencell from the size of a set of two-Euro coins as used in pre-clinical pig trials to the grain-of-rice size to be used in clinical trials.
The miniaturization of the pressure sensors consequently enables a dramatic size reduction of the sensor cavities filled with Lifecare’s proprietary reactive chemical fluid, and the successful in-vitro test confirms our already strong theoretically based hypothesis that the osmotic pressure, being a physical phenomenon, is unaffected by such a dramatic size reduction.
The confirmation of NTR-sensor functionality when made with internal manufacturing capabilities, is a solid basis for Sencell as a platform technology with a very broad potential of use for glucose measurement but also for other interesting biochemical parameters.
Lifecare will uphold the strong focus to bring the smallest device for Continuous Glucose Monitoring to the market, and based on the successful in-vitro tests we can now in addition conclude that our device set-up is suitable for identifying a wide range of analytes in the human body. In cooperation with the University of Bath (UK), Lifecare is developing biochemical re-active solutions suitable for identification of specifically defined analytes in the human body. This opens for commercial activities beyond the core focus of diabetes, and we will consider initiating partnering activities to realize the tremendous potential the Lifecare technology represents.
Increasing the staff in the Lifecare Group
In less than a year Lifecare has been transformed from a virtual organization based on contract development into a group structure with skilled personnel on several locations. In addition, the pace of the development has significantly increased as we are aiming to launch our technology in the European market in 2024. To ensure a continued pace of development Lifecare is establishing scientific management functions at the mother company in Bergen, Norway to ensure continued quality and unity in the developments going forward.
Barbora Tencer will access the position as Senior QMS manager in the first half of August 2022. Barbora holds a PhD in biophysics from Bratislava, Slovakia and has a broad research and engineering background from the University of Bergen and affiliated companies.
Mariana Tokvi Eiane will access the position as Senior Project Manager mid-August 2022. Mariana is a medical doctor and healthcare innovation manager with professional experience as CTO/R&D leader in Norway and from the pharmaceutical, hospital and laboratory industry in Germany and Georgia.
Aslak Fisketjønn will start as Controller in the start of August 2022. Aslak holds a master’s degree from Inland Norwegian University of Applied Sciences with professional experience from bank, limited companies and accounting.
In addition, Lifecare NanoBioSensors have recruited Mandar Metha who will join the team mid-July as a scientific employee. Mandar holds a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Gujarat Technological University, India and has professional experience as lead engineer and student researcher in Germany, as well as service engineering experience from India. Mandar will finalize a master’s degree in medical systems engineering at the Otto Von Guerick University this summer.
Article in Norwegian newspapers
In May, the regional Norwegian Newspaper Bergens Tidende published an article about Lifecare and our recent progress and upcoming plans. In addition, the article was published in several Norwegian newspapers such as Aftenposten, Stavanger Aftenblad and Fedrelandsvennen.
Lifecare Laboratory
The result from the high activity level at the Lifecare Laboratory now shows in the revenues from the Lifecare Laboratory; Gross revenue 575 TEUR and EBIT for the first four months show a profit of 150 TEUR. The activity level at the lab is now at a normal pace as the need for covid PCR-testing has decreased, enabling the lab to focus on third party’s development as well as the ongoing testing and evaluation of the Lifecare Sencell sensor.
Lifecare updated investor presentation is available here:
https://lifecare.no/reports/investor-presentation-june-2022/