Vitamica completes initial seed funding round

Vitamica’s innovative microscope that measures the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics in under one hour.

Press release issued: 5 November 2018

Vitamica, a University of Bristol spin-out company, has closed its initial seed funding round. This is a major milestone for the company which is developing a rapid diagnostic to determine the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics.

The investment will support further development of the prototype instrument and the expansion of validation trials.

Vitamica is working in an area of global importance: slowing the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among infectious bacteria. Among the tools required by healthcare professionals to help slow the spread of AMR are rapid diagnostic tests that will show which antibiotics are effective against a patient’s infection. This challenge is being addressed by Vitamica with its innovative rapid test technology.

Research led by Dr Massimo Antognozzi at the University of Bristol has shown that measuring tiny internal movements within bacteria could help doctors prescribe antibiotics more effectively in future. These internal vibrations cease when microbes are killed by antibiotics, giving rise to the possibility of a new diagnostic test to help guide prescribing decisions.

With the support of a grant from Innovate UK, the company is making good progress with laboratory tests to study the interaction between commonly used antibiotics and a range of bacteria. Dr Paul Meakin, Vitamica’s Chief Executive notes that: "the seed investment will make a big difference in the speed and scale of our testing programme. We are extremely grateful for the support of the University of Bristol Enterprise Fund, managed by Parkwalk, Wyvern Seed Fund and a group of individual investors. In what has been an exciting process we have been assisted greatly by the University of Bristol Research and Enterprise team, and by VWV Llp in finalising the legal documents."

"Vitamica now has the resources to push on with planned trials and demonstrate the capability of the technology in helping the fight against AMR", concludes Dr Charlotte Bermingham, Vitamica’s Chief Technology Officer.

Further information

Antibiotic resistant bacterial pathogens are a global challenge. Resistance is spreading rapidly and forecasts suggest that by 2050 there will be 10 million deaths annually as a result of failure to treat infections (O’Neill report, 2016). Developing new antibiotics is part of the strategy to maintain effective drugs, as is more targeted use of existing antibiotics. In order to improve decisions on use of antibiotics, rapid methods are needed to assess whether bacterial pathogens are susceptible or not to antibiotics (so called antimicrobial susceptibility testing). Current standard methods based on culturing take 1-3 days and therefore the results can not be used to guide choice of initial antibiotic. Use of broad-spectrum antibiotics as the initial prescribed drugs is recognised as contributing to the increase in AMR, and therefore there is global interest in development of rapid diagnostics to guide initial therapy.
The University of Bristol Enterprise Fund provides the private investor with an opportunity to invest in early stage technology companies as they spin-out of the University, while supplying additional finance to ensure that companies are properly resourced for the initial stages of commercial product development. The Fund is managed by Parkwalk. www.parkwalkadvisors.com/pw_ubef/
The Wyvern Seed Fund is an early stage investment fund owned by the Universities of Bristol and Southampton. Its objective is to help start and grow companies based on technologies developed at its partner universities. www.wyvernfund.com