Hibergene Awarded €1M EU Funding for Covid-19 Test
16th April 2020
Kernel Capital recently announced that Hibergene Diagnostics, a portfolio company of the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Funds has been awarded €1M in European Union Funding for its ‘Hg nCoV19’ test. The Dublin-based medtech company is working on a rapid diagnostic test for Covid-19, which is expected to deliver results within 60 minutes. The test will determine within 30 minutes if it is the Covid-19 virus, however, a negative result requires a further 30 minutes to confirm.
Hibergene Diagnostics based in Sandyford, Dublin 18 develops, manufactures and markets molecular diagnostic tests for human infectious diseases and is challenging long turnaround time for patient testing, carried out on expensive equipment with highly trained staff. The company is headed up by Chief Executive Officer, Simona Esposito. Simona has worked extensively in the healthcare industry having held senior commercial and management positions with Johnson & Johnson, Olympus, General Electric and Laborie Medical Technologies.
A spin-out from the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, HiberGene produce very rapid near patient molecular tests for various infectious diseases which allows healthcare professionals to diagnose infections on the spot for both patients and staff within an hour, rather than the typical 72 hours response available by sending a sample to a laboratory.
Hibergene are working in conjunction with a team at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and a hospital in Genoa. Clinical trials in the Genoa hospital are imminent and Hibergene is hoping to get similar trials up and running in Irish hospitals quickly.
The European Commission said the project was the 18th programme it will support under its recent emergency call for research and innovation into the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
