AMLo Biosciences
AMLo Biosciences is a spin-out company from the University of Newcastle which develops a suite of tests to help improve the management of patients with skin cancers. AMLo’s first product, AMBLor, is a prognostic test for early-stage cutaneous melanoma, which can identify patients at true risk of disease progression. The test is set to transform the current melanoma care pathway, stratifying patients to the most appropriate treatments and follow up, reducing the psychological burden of patients, as well as saving health authorities millions of pounds in unnecessary patient surveillance.
AMLo Biosciences try to reduce its carbon footprint in an area that involves a lot of single-use plastic. By creating a centralised hub for testing (which is something which the clinical community are looking to do) it reduces packaging and transport. The product also reduces the number of trips that patients have to make to secondary care for follow up testing, thus reducing travel. This has been particularly relevant in the NHS supply chain, where it requires environmental consequences to be considered.
AMLo Biosciences products have a significant positive impact on the patient themselves. It can help to reduce anxiety in patients who are diagnosed with melanoma, both associated with the initial cancer diagnosis, but also in the lead up to the follow up appointments, and the identification of their own individualised risk is. A case study has shown that these patients are able to get back to normal life quicker due to the reduction in anxiety and improved mental health. It can have a significant societal impact, by enabling the patient to return to work quicker, and reducing travel to additional appointments – and reducing the mental health burden on healthcare providers.
2017
Start Date
Newcastle
Location
15
Employees
£440k
Grants
£5m
Equity
The Journey
“ICURe helped us refine where to place our product in the
market by understanding what the clinical community needed. Even after 6 years
– we still look back at the conclusions that came out of ICURe. We also made so
many key contacts with opinion leaders in the US and we have developed those
relationships, they are advocates for the uptake of the product, and that would
have been difficult and expensive to do without the ICURe programme.”
“Since ICURe we have made great strides towards our goal of
being able to offer diagnostic tests to all patients. In November 2020 we
closed out Series A funding round for £1.5m, enabling us to complete our
clinical studies and fund the launch of AMBLor in the UK with NICE support.”
“In April 2022 we secured a further £2.5m investment, and we
have grown the team to 15 employees. We have onboarded some key hires to manage
our regulatory approval in the UK, a biostatistician and a project manager for
R&D. We also have a sales and marketing consultancy team based in the US
for the launch of the product over there. In January 2023 we received our ISO
1345 accreditation, which is a great milestone.”
“We have now signed a licence agreement with a lab in the US
called Avero Diagnostics, and they launched AMBLor in February 2023, so we’re
starting to see sales in the US.”
“We are working on three other products which are in the late
R&D Stage. The first is a line extension for AMBLor which looks at atypical
lesions, to see whether they’re benign or malignant. The second is a complementary
product to AMBLor for high risk melanoma, again, using immunohistochemistry,
this one is in the late stages of validation. The third is for a second skin
cancer called cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, also at the validation stage.”
Dr Marie Labus, CEO, AMLo Biosciences Ltd
Contact Form
Started ICURe programme
Company incorporated
Seed funding investment of £890k
£1.5m seed funding round closed
£2.5m investment secured
Signed license agreement for AMBLor launch in USA
What companies had to say about the ICURe programme?
“The ICURe programme guided me through in-depth market research and competitor analysis giving us a wealth of evidence for the real need for the test. We were advised to spin the company out and start applying for grants and investment. That advice gave us the confidence and support we needed to take that first step, and shortly after, we had secured our first investment from Innovate UK of £218k. This was crucial to advance our first AMBLor prognostic test.”
Dr Ashleigh McConnell
Research and Development Manager
Future Goals
Looking ahead AMLo Biosciences aim to focus on the US market as it makes up 50% of the total market for its products. Having now soft launched the product in partnership with Avero Diagnostics, it plans to raise £2.5-£3m in its next investment round to set up a lab in the US to do in-house testing rather than partnering with others.