Feb. 2019

Invizius has been named by FierceMedTech as one of 2018’s Fierce 15 med tech companies, designating it as one of the most promising private companies in the industry. 

Invizius has developed H-Guard, a biotechnology product that acts as an “invisibility cloak”, hiding life-saving medical devices from patients’ immune systems. The company’s first application targets the blood filter used in kidney dialysis, promising to meet a massive and desperate unmet need among almost three million patients with kidney failure.

Invizius spun out of ground-breaking research at the University of Edinburgh into how deadly bacteria manage to hide from the human immune system. H-Guard replicates bacteria’s behaviour and is being developed into a suite of products that integrate with existing treatments, preventing the deadly complications that result when medical devices are rejected.

During dialysis, the patient’s immune system sees the dialysis machine as an unwelcome foreign body, and attacks it, creating inflammatory processes that end up damaging the patient’s own cardiovascular system. Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death for dialysis patients, and life expectancy on dialysis is slashed by two-thirds compared to that of the general population.

H-Guard is also being developed to help millions of patients in critical care, or who undergo open heart surgery, who suffer from complications after being hooked up to heart and lung machines.

Invizius announced £500,000 of investment from Mercia Fund Managers in April 2018, shortly after the company was formed with the help of Edinburgh Innovations, the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service.

Richard Boyd, CEO of Invizius, said: “The team at Invizius is absolutely delighted that our innovation and global ambition are receiving international recognition as one of the Fierce 15, and this adds to the momentum the business is building. We are excited and motivated by the potential of H-Guard to address decades-long shortcomings in the treatment of millions of patients worldwide.”

The Fierce 15 celebrates the spirit of being “fierce” – championing innovation and creativity, even in the face of intense competition. This is FierceMedTech’s  seventh annual Fierce 15 selection.

An internationally recognized daily report reaching a network of over 90,000 med tech industry professionals, FierceMedTech provides subscribers with an authoritative analysis of the day's top stories. Every year FierceMedTech evaluates hundreds of private companies from around the world for its annual Fierce 15 list, which is based on a variety of factors such as the strength of its technology, partnerships, venture backers and a competitive market position.

The full list of this year’s Fierce 15 winners, and a feature on Invizius, can be viewed here.