MedMira receives $3-million funding to support development of rapid diagnostics tool

Halifax, NS – Rapid diagnostic solutions developer MedMira says it will receive up to $3 million from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), under the Atlantic Innovation Fund. The funding will enable the company’s biosensor division, Maple Biosciences, to undertake a $5.4 million project to further develop a biosensor-based diagnostic technology.

The company says the new diagnostics instruments will displace the current 30-year-old technology and play an role in the global laboratory diagnostics market sector, currently valued at over US$22 billion. Aimed at improving both the delivery of healthcare and the patient experience, the new diagnostic instruments will enable highly complex lab tests to be performed in minutes, reduced specimen collection, reduced waiting time for test results, increased automation in the lab, and the streamlined diagnosis of multiple conditions and diseases.

“We’re very pleased to receive this support from ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund as we move our biosensor technology development forward towards commercialization, ultimately resulting in advanced diagnostics and better healthcare,” says Hermes Chan, the company’s president & CEO. “The work being done in our Maple Biosciences division goes hand-in-hand with our rapid diagnostics expertise at MedMira and will bring our product offering full circle, from point-of-care screening to confirmatory diagnostics.”