Loop Medical said today that it has received a $3.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support pre-production and clinical trials required for the global registration of its blood collection device. The foundation had previously given the company a $400,000 grant.
Based at the Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, Loop Medical designed the device to be painless, easy-to-use and able to collect samples that are large enough for common high-throughput blood analyzers. The device was also designed to improve safety, particularly in countries with low medical resources.
In the standard venipuncture procedure, a long needle is used to collect blood from the vein. Loop accesses blood in capillaries that are just below the skin, through a minimally invasive and painless manner, according to its website.
Loop has been working with clinical pathology and histocytopathology company Cerba HealthCare since 2017 to design a device that can be fully integrated into existing centralized laboratories’ infrastructures and processes. The device targets clinical pathology laboratories, clinics, pharmacies, physician offices and patients at home. The technology addresses the need to empower patients, communities and healthcare professionals through a safe and effortless solution in a highly commoditized blood collection market under significant price pressure, according to Loop.
“We are thrilled to have received this second grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It shows trust in our project and is a recognition that our early development activities are well managed,” said Loop Medical founder & CEO Arthur Queval in a prepared statement. “We are convinced our painless and easy-to-use device is a major breakthrough. It will benefit both the blood collection procedure itself and the safety and convenience of the end-to-end diagnostic process for a variety of health conditions and geographies around the world.”
