The point-of-care (PoC) market continues to gain traction as it is expected to reach a market valuation of US$77.8 billion by 2028 and growing at a compound annual growth rate of 9.4 per cent.
PoC devices are primarily used to acquire patient information in resource-limited settings and include devices such as blood glucose monitors, home pregnancy tests, rapid strip tests and thermometers among others.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic in particular, the need for PoC diagnostics significantly ramped up thanks to rapid testing, leading to an increased demand for POC testing among healthcare facilities in the market.
When it comes to Gemina Laboratories Ltd. (CSE:GLAB), the Canada and U.K.-based company is progressing a range of PoC diagnostic technologies, aimed at improving tests for respiratory and infectious diseases using its proprietary chemistry that powers testing platforms for a range of pathogens that affect human health and wellness.
In an interview with The Market Online, Gemina Labs CEO Brian Firth explained that the company’s technology falls into two categories: improving lateral flow tests and improving molecular testing. He added, however, that a third category is coming.
The company describes some of the benefits of its technology as cost-reducing and accuracy-improving.
With that being said, as the need for PoC diagnostics continues to accelerate, so will Gemina Laboratories’ efforts, making it a company that investors won’t want to miss out on.
A closer look at Gemina Labs
With its headquarters in Vancouver, Gemina Laboratories is a next-generation PoC diagnostics company that launched in May 2020.
Over the course of its relatively short life to date, it filed its first patent in September 2020, produced its first prototype in spring 2021, went public in August 2021 and obtained its first product approval in 2022.
The company’s PoC diagnostics and results are conducted at the location of patient sample collection as the company has a goal of democratizing diagnostics by bringing them to every healthcare system in the world and making them affordable.
With its two key technology categories – improving lateral flow tests and improving molecular testing – Gemina Laboratories caters to a wide, but specific, demographic.
Case in point, its lateral flow testing allows for the same sensitivity as traditional tests but uses 75 per cent less antibody, making it more cost effective.
Lateral flow technology has been used in a variety of home and point of care tests (e.g. pregnancy, covid, drugs of abuse, tropical diseases, STDs allergens etc.), but it is not as accurate as laboratory testing because of inefficient deposition of the antibody.
Historically, problems with lateral flow technology have been misorientation and inefficient and expensive deposition of the antibody with low native stickiness for the target, meaning as little as 25 per cent of the antibody has been effective.
“The best way to describe those antibodies is like they’re basketball players standing with their hands up, ready to catch the ball,” Firth explained to The Market Online. “So, if they’re all standing there with their hands up in the air, it’s quite easy to get them to catch the ball right as it comes past. But in reality, in lateral flow tests when you spray antibodies onto nitrocellulose, they aren’t all standing up.”
Firth added that this essentially means only roughly 15 to 25 per cent of the antibodies are standing up.
What gives Gemina Laboratories’ technology a unique spin is that its chemistry is a surface chemistry binder which ensures antibodies are all in the right place and in the right orientation hence increasing the effectiveness of the test.
In other words, the company’s chemistry improves upon the sensitivity, leading to reduced costs over traditional lateral flow.
Expanding on that, Gemina’s technology can also be made virtually anywhere in the world, meaning its diagnostics solutions can be accessed in lower-income countries.
In terms of its molecular technologies, Gemina Labs’ solutions have made it so they can run on portable molecular diagnostic machines that give them the ability to detect tuberculosis, among other things, in saliva.
Gemina Labs’ products
The company’s first product to launch was the Legio X™, which is a COVID-19 rapid antigen test that is a rapid lateral flow immunoassay for detecting nucleocapsid protein antigen from SARS-CoV-2 in an anterior nasal swab specimen.
The company received its CE mark approval for the product in May 2022, after demonstrating equivalent sensitivity to Europe’s number one selling test. The significance was that Gemina were able to achieve the sensitivity with a sample taken from the lower part of the nose (the arterial nasal cavity) whereas the competition were having to take samples from deep inside the nose (nasal pharyngeal). Although by early 2023, the full kit became available for distribution. Gemina’s business model is to license technology to larger diagnostic manufacturers. So in 2024 the first license deal was signed with more now in the pipeline.
The company is already working on bringing additional diagnostic technologies to market and expects to make these available to customers in the near future.
Gemina Labs updates
Gemina has an interesting business model in that they don’t sell diagnostics. Instead they license their technology to large diagnostic providers. This means they can focus their efforts on solving key problems for the industry and leave the marketing and sales to organisations who already have that global infrastructure. It means their technology can go into more tests faster worldwide.
Moving forward, Firth told The Market Online that investors can expect Gemina Labs to extend the number of commercial licenses. In July, the company announced it is in discussions with four additional significant diagnostic companies that have now signed Non-Disclosure Agreements with Gemina for further evaluation of several different Gemina technologies in significant detail.
Thanks to its first license partnership signed and more at the evaluation stage, Gemina has now advanced its commercial partner pipeline with companies responsible for around 45 per cent of its estimated C$1.5 billion directly addressable revenue opportunity in lateral flow diagnostics.
Earlier in April, the company licensed a novel biosensing architecture with the University of British Columbia, which is a combination of a research program the two entities signed back in 2021.
In a statement, the company stated the license lays the foundation for expanding its technology portfolio to include point-of-care biosensors chips to enable low-cost, high-sensitivity detection of molecular amplification products, small molecules and proteins.
He also said the company will continue to deepen the “burden of proof,” meaning Gemina Labs will improve upon the lateral flow’s sensitivity in saliva before moving on to showing its potential in urine and blood.
“That just extends the number of places across that whole market because that’s what lateral flow tests are used for,” Firth said. He also said Gemina Labs will be launching new chemistries for different market areas.
The company also issued its first commercial invoice in June, while it estimates it will ramp up to material revenue levels in 2025.
As Gemina Labs continues to focus on expanding its technology and securing licensing agreements, the company will have continued news flow for investors to watch out for.
The management team
Brian Firth, CEO
Brian Firth has spent more than 35 years in medical diagnostics, primarily focused on point-of-care diagnostics. Over that time, Firth spent roughly eight years at Swiss Precision Diagnostics, which is the owner of Clearblue, as managing director of its U.K. subsidiary. He then became chief operating officer of the parent company.
Firth also previously had his advisory practice that focused on health tech. Clients included AGFA, Johnson & Johnson, Akzo Nobel and Inverness Medical. Firth’s career also includes experience in the human wellness market with a focus on human performance monitoring.
Mike Liggett, CFO
Mike Liggett has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare and finance industries. Liggett practiced as a pharmacist for more than seven years before obtaining his chartered accountant certification and joining PWC.
After his time with PWC, Liggett joined Inflazyme Pharmaceuticals as CFO and has since joined Gemina Laboratories. Liggett has success in finance, M&A, strategic partnerships, restructurings and risk management.
John Davies, chairman
John Davies has more than two decades of experience in a career in research commercialization. Over that time, Davies has worked as the financial director of IndexIT, a London-based technology advisory boutique, and as founding director of IPO Group plc where he was CFO and COO.
Davies subsequently joined the founding team of Scientific Research Capital, a firm investing in deep science origination and commercialization
He was the financial director of IndexIT, a successful London-based technology advisory boutique and went on to become a founding director, CFO and COO of IP Group plc (LSE:IPO). He subsequently joined the founding team of Scientific Research Capital, investing in deep science origination and commercialization. In 2016 Davies founded Syniad Innovations.
Rob Greene, CTO
Rob Greene is the platform’s inventor and began his career in the resource industry. From there, Greene started EcoMine Technologies. He obtained his M.ENg. from the University of British Columbia in surface chemistry.
The investment corner
As of the time of this writing, Gemina Labs has a market cap of C$52.20 million and a share price of C$0.70 with 74.57 million shares outstanding.
With more than 30 years of experience in innovating decades-old diagnostics, Gemina Labs has a competitive advantage in the market thanks to its breakthrough chemistry for its PoC accuracy and sustainability.
While Gemina Labs is still a relatively new company in the grand scheme of things, the company has proven it knows what it takes to advance products through each of the regulatory phases to bring products to market.
Case in point: With 35 inventions backed by patent applications, Gemina Labs is focused on innovation and addressing in-demand markets.
As Gemina Labs looks to notch its first commercial license in 2024, which will enable the worldwide distribution of its technology, the company will no doubt be one to watch.
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(Top image via Adobe Stock, Generated by AI.)