Technology hope for diabetes screening

DIAGNOSTICS specialist Avacta has signed an exclusive rights deal for its breath-testing technology.

York-based Avacta, which was spun out of the University of Leeds, said it had entered into an agreement with EV Medical Screening for the worldwide rights to Avacta's laser-based breath diagnostics technology.

Avacta acquired the technology in 2007 and has developed it into a method of breath diagnostics and industrial gas sensing with several prototypes.

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EV, a breath diagnostic company, said Avacta's technology would provide an accurate and sensitive method of detecting certain gases in human breath.

EV is focusing on non-invasive ways of screening people for two years and wants to bring products to the multi-billion-pound market within two years.

The company aims to become a world leading breath diagnostic company.

It will initially focus on screening for diabetes and expects to bring its first products to market in the next two years.

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Avacta will receive a royalty of 10 per cent of net sales on products developed using its technology.

Alastair Smith, chief executive of Avacta Group, said: "The Avacta gas-analysis technology has the potential to provide a rapid, non-invasive and accurate method of screening the population for diabetes and this is an area that Avacta had identified as ideal for its technology for some time.

"Our limited resources have not allowed Avacta to focus on human diagnostic applications to date but this licence agreement with EV will accelerate the commercialisation of the technology in a valuable application area."