The Next-Generation of Small, Cost-Effective and Mobile Brain Scanner for an Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease

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Alzheimer’s (AD) is a global epidemic with 50 M people suffering it and 76 M expected by 2030 (related costs near $1 Tri in 2018). To diminish its burden, an early detection is crucial, specially when modifying treatments become available. The most accurate method to measure AD hallmarks is positron emission tomography (PET), but current PET scanners are multi-modal, whole-body, room-filling, expensive to acquire (€1-5 M) and not commonly used. Thus, there is still a need for more efficient diagnostic tools to detect AD at an early stage to adopt the best live-lasting treatment. Positrigo is a Swiss start-up, founded with the goal of provide an efficient PET tool for the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. Our technology has enabled us to develop a first prototype of BPET which has been preliminary tested in the laboratory with high performance. BPET is a dedicated mobile brain scanner with the size of a drying hood, 10x less capital (€400 k instead of millions) and 5x less operational expenses than current scanners. It will greatly improve early diagnosis of AD, facilitate its treatment follow-up and contribute to accelerate drug development programs, with a 10x increase in scanning capacity. BPET can be sold to hospitals and clinical research organizations, tailored to the needs of patients and doctors, and it can enable new case uses of brain PET (e.g many scanners used in parallel, wider populations, in larger cohort research studies). Diverse hospitals have shown their interest in BPET and their support for its complete development for its potential applications and impact. To launch BPET in the healthcare market we need its CE marking, clinical validation and industrial adaptation, so a total of €2.5M for phase 2 will be requested. BPET project will pave the way for our company to be established as an innovative alternative in scanner-based diagnosis, boosting our company to grow and reach around €30 M profits and a ROI of 7.4 after 5 years.