- The German medtech company analyses biomarker constellations with advanced nuclear magnetic resonance and artificial intelligence to improve diagnostics.
- The company develops multi-biomarker diagnostic tests to improve organ function assessment for patients with kidney, heart and liver disease, as well as cancer and multiple sclerosis.
- Another €20 million for marketing the product is provided by existing Numares investors.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a quasi-equity financing agreement of up to €20 million with Numares Health AG. The Regensburg-based company has developed a fully automated in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) platform, the AXINON® system. It improves diagnostic quality for chronic diseases of the kidney, heart and liver, as well as cancer and multiple sclerosis.
AXINON® combines nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and artificial intelligence to collect metabolomics data from liquid biopsy samples like urine and blood. Instead of focusing on single markers, Numares uses nuclear magnetic resonance to evaluate groups of metabolites (known as metabolite constellations) that are analysed using machine learning.
This chemical-free technology is already used by several major laboratories in the United States. The laboratories and Numares share the profits of the faster and more accurate results delivered by the technology. For example, with Numares technology, rejections reactions following kidney transplantations can be detected sooner and more accurately.
Numares will use the EIB financing (a €20 million quasi-equity facility) for further research and development. Existing investors will contribute to an additional €20 million for investments in the mass marketing of the proprietary technology products in the European Union and the United States.
The loan is part of the European Guarantee Fund’s venture debt financing. This product has been designed in response to the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, which have further deteriorated commercial banks’ willingness to provide financing for risk investment into innovative technology companies like Numares. The benefit of this is a clear enhancement to the EIB’s risk-taking capacity, with a view to addressing sub-optimal investment situations arising from the pandemic.
“We are proud to support this innovative health-company,” said EIB-Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle. “We see the promise of improved multi-marker diagnostics that could help patients where single marker diagnostics have failed or been inadequate.”
Numares CEO Winton Gibbons said: “The Numares approach holds the potential to answer medical questions where current diagnostics have been inadequate. The use of artificial intelligence and highly standardised NMR data will result in a variety of algorithms to diagnose and manage a number of diseases. With the EIB venture debt financing, we will bring this novel, revolutionary technology to the patients who need better diagnostic tools.”
Background information
The EIB’s activities focus on the following priority areas: climate and environment, development, innovation and skills, small and medium-sized businesses, infrastructure and cohesion. The EIB works closely with other EU institutions to foster European integration, promote the development of the European Union and support EU policies in over 140 countries around the world.
The European Guarantee Fund (EGF) was created by 22 EU Member States in response to the coronavirus pandemic. With state guarantees of about €25 billion, the EIB can mobilise up to €200 billion to support small and medium-sized companies suffering from the economic fall out of the pandemic.
Numares Health AG is a healthcare company using artificial intelligence-enabled technology to develop novel diagnostic tests to help physicians improve care for their patients with chronic diseases, including kidney, cardiovascular, liver and neurological conditions.
Numares develops advanced tests to aid in diagnosis and measurement of disease progression by applying machine learning to metabolomics and other biomarkers. The company developed the AXINON® system that uses next-generation nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to evaluate metabolic constellations and a proprietary Magnetic Group Signaling (MGS®) technology that enables the spectroscopy.
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