SymCel Initiative to Combat Antibiotic Drug Resistance
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Following the global and joint initiative by the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostics industries this year to combat antibiotic resistance, demand for innovative solutions is especially high. The event took place in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
A major declaration was signed by 85 companies and nine industry associations – committing the industry to increased investment in research and development of new antibiotics, diagnostics, vaccines and alternative therapies.
SymCel, the company behind the revolutionary cell-based assay tool, calScreener, is confident that this key development opens up increased opportunities for companies with technologies and solutions that address the current challenges of antibiotic resistance head on.
SymCel’s novel technology and calorimetry approach, has seen its application extended beyond academic and preclinical research in recent years, with the company now also taking the initiative to enter the sphere of medical diagnostics research.
calScreener makes it possible to measure which antibiotics are most effective in real-time – making the technology a highly useful asset for the monitoring of existing medication.
Magnus Jannson, SymCel’s Chief Scientific Officer commented: ”We have taken this great opportunity to focus extra hard on the medical diagnostics market and to sell our measurement technologies and novel products for use as effective tools for developing new antibiotics and clinical research for the medical follow-up of existing treatments in the antibiotics field.
By example, this year alone, SymCel has applied its methodology and its leading product, calScreener, in clinical research both for the development of new treatments and the specific medical follow-up treatment of microbial infections – including tuberculosis (TB), bone necrosis and urinary tract infection.”
Magnus Jansson added: “Our technology is truly unique because it is more time and cost efficient than traditional methods. It ensures that the correct antibiotic is made use of as a treatment. Indeed, SymCel’s method for cell-based measurements are based on isothermal microcalorimetry.
The main competitive advantage of calScreener over other approaches is that the technology can measure with accuracy where no other techniques can be applied. We like to call the approach ‘Beyond Pasteur’ to emphasize the need for novel technologies in antibiotics research.”
Christer Wallin, CEO of Symcel remarked: “Our innovative method brings with it the clear industry advantage of being able to measure bacterial infections in solid samples and tissues. It can also measure the effect of antibiotics on bacteria that form biofilms with high sensitivity, something that is extremely difficult for competing approaches to achieve”.
