Stockholm, September, 2020: Swedish med-tech start-up Capitainer today announced it has signed a distribution deal with Speciality Diagnostix for Europe and Australia/New Zealand. The deal comes amid increasing interest driven by COVID-19 in Capitainer’s highly accurate qDBS dried blood spot sampling system.
Christiaan E Raaijmakers, European General Manager, and Anthony May, Asia Pacific General Manager for Specialty Diagnostix commented: “With their standardized, microsystem based sampling technology, Capitainer SE have developed a ground-breaking solution for near-patient blood sampling of volume defined Dried Blood Spots (DBS). Patients are able to conveniently collect their own blood samples at home and mail them to a laboratory for analysis using an innovative DBS card that allows the sampling of an exact volume of blood regardless of the sample’s haematocrit. We are very delighted to represent Capitainer and will it leverage our expertise and marketing possibilities in the Drugs of Abuse and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring markets in particular.”
Christopher Aulin, CEO of Capitainer added: “Specialty Diagnostix is an ideal partner for us. They are dedicated to the marketing and distribution of novel, laboratory based assays and active in 25 markets, directly serving 15 European and Asia Pacific countries. They will help us meet strong interest for qDBS across the wide range of both existing and new applications such as therapeutic drug monitoring, genomics anti-doping testing we had originally identified. In addition, we are working with several groups involved in COVID-19 testing and planning to launch antibody testing in Sweden together with several health care regions.”
Capitainer’s qDBS system is designed to enable patients to collect their own volume defined dried blood spot at home. The patented smart chip ensures exact sample volumes of 10ul with low CV, independent of haematocrit. Patients simply place their finger over the inlet port on the qDBS card which automatically fills a microchannel with the required amount and discards any excess. The potential for human error is thus completely eliminated. Subsequently, the blood volume contained in the microchannel automatically transfers to the specimen collection membrane, forming an accurate and high quality dried blood spot sample, preserved for quantitative bioanalysis. The filled card can then be safely transported to the point of testing without the need for refrigeration or specialised packaging.
