Burlingame, Calif., August 6, 2019 — Inflammatix, a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics, announced today that it has received the American Association for Clinical Chemistry’s (AACC) Disruptive Technology Award for its rapid HostDx™ tests, which read the immune system to improve diagnosis of acute infections and sepsis. The award was based on the company’s presentation during the 71st AACC Annual Scientific Meeting, which is being held August 4-8 in Anaheim, Calif.
“We are extremely honored to receive this prestigious award, which recognizes the power of our proven technology to transform diagnosis of acute infections and sepsis,” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., cofounder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix. “We believe our rapid HostDx tests will enable physicians to more quickly get the right treatments to the right patients, improving patient outcomes and ultimately reducing the global health burdens of antibiotic resistance and sepsis.”
Inflammatix’s first test, HostDx Sepsis, will use proprietary algorithms to read the immune system’s response to infection. The test measures the expression of multiple immune genes to identify the presence of bacterial or viral infections and to determine if a patient has or is likely to develop sepsis. In contrast, while traditional diagnostic approaches look for blood-based pathogens, most infections – and nearly half of sepsis cases – are negative for bloodstream pathogens. Inflammatix’s technology is proven in dozens of studies involving over 2,400 patients and published in leading peer-reviewed journals. The company is developing a proprietary cartridge-based system that will produce rapid results at or near the point of care in 30 minutes or less and plans to seek FDA clearance for the HostDx Sepsis test.
Each year in the United States alone, 20 million patients are assessed for acute infections and sepsis in emergency department and other hospital settings. Sepsis, a life-threatening condition in which the body’s immune system becomes dysregulated fighting an infection, kills more than 250,000 people in the United States each year and is estimated to cause or contribute to over five million deaths worldwide annually.
AACC’s Disruptive Technology Award recognizes innovative testing solutions that improve patient care through diagnostic performance or access to high quality testing. Inflammatix was one of three finalists selected to present to a panel of expert judges during a special session of the AACC meeting. The company was selected based on its technology’s clinical validity, patient impact, market opportunity, business model, competitive analysis, intellectual property strength, regulatory plan, team strength and stage of development.
Inflammatix also received the Audience Choice award based on the audience’s votes for their favorite technology.
About Inflammatix
Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by “reading” the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infections and sepsis, where its HostDx™ tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform in 20-30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company is funded by Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, the Stanford-StartX Fund and Think.Health Ventures. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).
Media Contacts
For Inflammatix:
Tracy Morris
[email protected]
650-380-4413
