Anubis II Case Study: Pegasus Equine Diagnostics
Having been awarded £10,000 to invest in technology, all the winning companies took an innovative idea and weaved it into their businesses. Here is a summary of their successes thanks to the ANUBIS funding.
Technology is helping an equine diagnostics business to work with vets to identify and treat horses for two potentially fatal diseases.
Pegasus Equine Diagnostics (PED) Ltd is investing the £10,000 ANUBIS funding into IT systems which will increase the efficiency and take-up of its laboratory services.
Tim Miller, managing director of EMNET, which runs the ANUBIS competition said:
“PED’s success is underpinned by its innovative and commercial use of technology to create a practical solution for its customers. The judges in the ANUBIS competition clearly chose a winning business which has the vision to turn ideas into a commercial reality.”
Managing Director of EMNET Tim Miller
The company has pioneered innovative blood tests for the prevention and treatment of laminitis, a common and extremely painful hoof condition, and Cushing’s Syndrome which has some similarities to human diabetes mellitus type II and includes a greater susceptibility to laminitis. The new laboratory services, which are based at BioCity in Nottingham, will provide vets with online access to the test results.
“Knowing a horse is susceptible to developing a disease means that both owner and vet can work to prevent damage and more successfully manage that horse’s condition. The opportunity to do everything possible for an animal’s health and well being brings many people peace of mind.”
Director of PED Sue Haritou
The ANUBIS Award will facilitate roll out of a pilot “Preferred Practice” scheme for large equine veterinary practices and referral hospitals over the next year. The online system will be quick and easy for vets to use compared to more traditional paper based systems, provide data from tests which are the first of their kind and integrate results to provide a more complete picture of an individual animal’s history of care and treatment.
The new tests are currently available to researchers, but should be of great interest to equine veterinary practices in the UK and Europe. The technology also has the potential to be taken up by over 1300 veterinary practices in the UK which deal with companion animals, as it concentrates on factors which change during the aging process. This market potential means the company hopes to employ up to fifteen people in the next couple of years.
PED has forged commercial partnerships with a German laboratory service provider/assay manufacturer and also a well known UK animal feed company in order to provide practical applications of the academic research and be able to access different market sectors. The business model is a phased progression of laboratory services, nutraceuticals and repurposed pharmaceuticals with such key business partners providing manufacturing services, expertise from their field and sales and marketing programmes to PED.
“PED was formed because I could not find a commercial lab which would provide the tests we thought my horse needed to recover from Cushing’s syndrome. However, taking new theories and pilot studies, then scientific research through to development of a successful business has been challenging. Many grant awards or equity investments require matched funding and finding that match may severely impact the business development of an early stage company. EMDA’s initiatives have helped us greatly in this respect and we hope to pass our knowledge of the process on to other companies in a similar situation.”
Director of PED Sue Haritou
Winning the ANUBIS Award means PED can enhance the commercial opportunities for success of the laboratory business and continue to contribute to the welfare of horses and other animals.
Anubis Winner's Link: visit the PED website
