Prolight Diagnostics, developer of the digital point-of-care platform PsyrosTM, has been awarded an NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Product Development Award (PDA) of SEK17M (£1.26M) in collaboration with among others, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and King’s College London.

“We are delighted to have been awarded this prestigious grant. The National Institute for Health and Care Research i4i PDA grants are extremely competitive and this award gives external validation of the utility of our unique single-molecule-counting technology,” said Ulf Bladin, CEO of Prolight Diagnostics.

The grant is received in collaboration with King’s College London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation trust and the market access consultancy Lightning Health, with Prolight’s UK subsidiary, Psyros Diagnostics, being the lead grant holder.

The grant will help support the final stages of product development, including pilot manufacturing of instruments, initial clinical studies with patient samples, technical file submission and set-up of a patient advisory group.

More about NIHR i4i PDA

The UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Invention for Innovation (i4i) program is a translational research funding scheme aimed at medical devices, in vitro diagnostic devices and digital health technologies addressing an existing or emerging health or social care need.

The NIHR i4i Product Development Award (PDA) supports collaborative research and development of high-impact patient-focused technologies for use in the NHS or social care systems. The aim is to accelerate benefits to patients and end users, de-risk the technologies and make them attractive to follow-on funders, investors, and buyers, in particular NHS commissioners and national guidance bodies. Among other requirements, projects must have progressed beyond basic research and have demonstrated proof-of-concept.

About the NIHR
The mission of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. This is done by:

• Funding high quality, timely research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care;

• Investing in world-class expertise, facilities and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services;
• Partnering with patients, service users, carers and communities, improving the relevance, quality and impact of our research;

• Attracting, training and supporting the best researchers to tackle complex health and social care challenges;

• Collaborating with other public funders, charities and industry to help shape a cohesive and globally competitive research system;

• Funding applied global health research and training to meet the needs of the poorest people in low and middle income countries.

NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. Its work in low and middle income countries is principally funded through UK international development funding from the UK government.