The team behind a first-of-its-kind skin cancer test have received a £2.45m investment boost as they look to launch the test on the NHS and in the USA this summer.
The female-led AMLo Biosciences is a spin-out firm which started at Newcastle University and has developed a brand new test which can determine whether a skin cancer patient's melanoma is low-risk - which would mean it could be treated in a less intensive way. This would see fewer patients have to undergo treatment they may not need and also free up NHS capacity to treat those who do require more care.
Melanoma is one of the cancers that dogged Sir Bobby Robson - and currently around 16,000 people a year in the UK are diagnosed with it. But for most, if caught early, the cancer can be removed - though in around 10% of cases, stage one melanomas can spready or return.
Read more: Newcastle team develop new test that could transform skin cancer care - and cut NHS waiting lists
Before the test developed by AMLo, there has not previously been a reliable way of finding out in which people the cancer will recur. The scientists - including chief science officer Prof Penny Lovat - are also working on other products including tests which spotlight the people at highest risk of cancer recurring (rather than the lowest) and similar tools to help with the treatment of other kinds of cancer.
AMLo has previously had some backing from angel investors and other investment groups, but the £2.5m that's just been announced is by far it's biggest cash injection to date - and the money from investors including the London-based Future Planet Capital group will help finance a push to market the new melanoma test in the USA.
Dr Marie Labus, chief exec at the firm, told ChronicleLive: "We saw it as an opportunity to really develop something that would allow you to manage patients in a better way. At the moment the only way is to treat patients all the same, This test allows patients to be stratified to identify those who are low-risk.
"We have spent the last five years getting this product to the stage where it's ready to launch on the market. We are in the process of getting our UKCA mark and in the summer we'll be launching the kit. We wanted to focus on starting in our home market, but this money will also allow us to develop the relationships we have in the US to launch the test there this summer too."
Though in the past Dr Labus explained funding of around £2m had found, "things had really been on a shoe-string" she said. The new £2.5m will allow AMLo to expand its team of scientists too - with the hope being to hire a handful of new employees to boost numbers, there are just eight at the moment.
With the investors from London, Dr Labus said she was pleased to have been able to persuade FPC to invest in the North East, and she said she was also encouraged by the support for a firm led by women. "It's really encouraging that our investors have chosen to invest in the North East economy," she said.
Earlier this year, Prof Lovat told ChronicleLive how she believed the new test could help the NHS deal with unprecedented pressures. She said: "Because we haven't had any way of stratifying those who may be higher-risk, we have to treat everybody the same. That's a lot of follow-up, a lot of visits to the NHS - and we all know how much pressure the pandemic has put on the NHS."
Guy Pengelley, a portfolio manager at Future Planet Capital said it had "admired Dr Labus and her team's commitment to delivering long-term returns while improving lives" since first investing in 2020. He added that the firm was looking forward to support its expansion.
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