Melbourne, Australia – November 30, 2021 – Uniseed investee Q-Sera Pty Ltd, an Australian venture-backed company, announced today a partnership with Terumo Corporation, the leading Japanese medical device company, which will see its patent protected RAPClot™ rapid serum tube technology manufactured and used in Japan.
Uniseed alongside the MRCF, have been supporting Q-Sera Pty Ltd since June 2012. At that time, the biotechnology company was formed to commercialise intellectual property from The University of Queensland and, in particular, develop an improved blood collection tube.
RAPClot™ serum tubes (evacuated blood collection tubes) produce high quality serum in less than five minutes, reducing the turnaround time from sample collection to serum analysis compared with current technologies. RAPClot™ is also effective in producing high quality serum from blood samples that contain anti-coagulants such as heparin. Up to 10 percent of hospital emergency department admissions are patients on anti-coagulant therapies and current blood collection tubes cannot efficiently clot their blood, resulting in a failure to clot or formation of fibrin strands which interfere with analysers. The ability of RAPClot™ tubes to generate high quality serum in less than 5 minutes and to clot anti-coagulated blood samples represents a substantial step forward in patient diagnosis.
In hospital and community settings, as well as acute situations such as hospital emergency departments where speed matters, blood tests are commonly used to assist the accurate diagnosis of medical problems ranging from heart attacks to diabetes. A delay in test results means a delay in diagnosis and the right care for very sick patients. Having access to a technology that universally clots all blood samples within five minutes will contribute to improved patient outcomes and reduced healthcare costs.
Under the terms of the partnership, Terumo Corporation has been granted the exclusive rights to manufacture and market Q-Sera’s rapid serum tube technology in Japan. Q-Sera will also supply Terumo Corporation with the recombinant protein RAPClot™.
Q-Sera has adapted prothrombin activators originally found in the venom of some snakes to develop RAPClot™. RAPClot™ can be produced at industrial scale using recombinant cell lines and standard pharmaceutical manufacturing processes.
Michael Grant, CEO of Q-Sera, said, “Q-Sera is pleased to be partnering with Terumo Corporation for the Japanese market. Terumo Corporation is a leading global medical device company and has a history of innovation in the field of blood collection tubes and together we look forward to bringing this next-generation tube technology to the market to benefit Japanese patients”.
Tsuyoshi Tomita, Senior Executive Officer of Terumo said, “RAPClot™ has the potential to dramatically improve issues such as coagulation time, heparinised blood, and fibrin strands in tests with serum. It will be a great pleasure for Terumo to be able to partner with Q-Sera to improve the accuracy of diagnosis using blood collection tubes”.
Q-Sera is actively seeking partners for other regions.
About Q-Sera
Q-Sera is a registered company founded to commercialise intellectual property developed at The University of Queensland which includes active proteins and formulations for a novel serum collection tube. The technology behind Q-Sera involves using a certain class of proteins (prothrombin activators) originally identified from the venom of specific snakes to accelerate the clotting of blood in an improved blood collection tube to produce high quality serum for biochemical analysis. The company’s lead active protein RAPClot™ is manufactured recombinantly. Q-Sera is supported by investment from two of Australia’s premier life science investors, the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF), managed by Australia’s largest venture capital firm Brandon Capital Partners, and Uniseed, Australia’s longest running venture fund operating at selected Australian universities and CSIRO.
For more information visit: www.q-sera.com
About Uniseed
Uniseed is Australia’s longest running early-stage commercialisation fund that makes investments in research emanating from five of Australia’s leading research organisations – The University of Queensland, The University of Sydney, The University of New South Wales, The University of Melbourne and the CSIRO. Uniseed is a mutual fund, owned by research organisations, for research organisations. The fund facilitates the commercialisation of its research partners’ most promising intellectual property and secures targeted investment in resulting products and technologies. For more information, visit: https://uniseed.com
About Terumo Corporation
Terumo (TSE:4543) is a global leader in medical technology and has been committed to “Contributing to Society through Healthcare” for 100 years. Based in Tokyo and operating globally, Terumo employs more than 25,000 associates worldwide to provide innovative medical solutions in more than 160 countries and regions. The company started as a Japanese thermometer manufacturer, and has been supporting healthcare ever since. Now, its extensive business portfolio ranges from vascular intervention and cardio-surgical solutions, blood transfusion and cell therapy technology, to medical products essential for daily clinical practice such as transfusion systems, diabetes care, and peritoneal dialysis treatments. Terumo will further strive to be of value to patients, medical professionals, and society at large.
For more information visit: https://www.terumo.com/
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