Braveheart upbeat on developments at portfolio firms

The AIM-traded firm said Paraytec, which develops high-performance specialist detectors for the analytical and life sciences instrumentation markets, had been working on a programme with the University of Sheffield to develop rapid tests called CX300 to identify cancer and pathogens, including viruses.

It said the clinical study of CX300 had been successfully completed, and initial results showed up to 100% correlation with patients who tested positive by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

The CX300 instrument was expected to be three times quicker than conventional PCR tests at delivering a test result, and could distinguish patients who were likely to be infectious from those who were not.

Braveheart said the independent clinical statistical analysis and report were expected to be completed in June.

Paraytec's CX300 had also passed independent testing for CE marking, which would certify its compliance with required safety standards for a laboratory use instrument.

The company had been exploring potential follow-on projects and use cases, including accelerating the diagnosis of sepsis, reducing the time and cost of developing new treatments for lipid nanoparticles, characterising extracellular vesicles, analysing vaults, assessing the quality of adeno-associated virus products, and improving protein aggregation analysis.

Kirkstall, meanwhile, which operates in the ‘organ-on-a-chip’ market, had developed ‘Quasi Vivo’ - a system of chambers for cell and tissue culture in laboratories.

Its patented technology was being used by researchers in the growing ‘New Approach Methodologies’ (NAMs), which enable human-relevant drug safety decisions to be made without the need for animal testing.

Kirkstall's newly developed QV1200 product had already attracted “strong interest” from actual and potential academic and commercial customers.

The firm said the QV1200 culture chambers were single-use, which would provide Kirkstall with the ability to seek repeat sales from each customer.

It said the organ-on-a-chip technology was designed to reduce or replace the use of animals in research and testing, complying with the EU's recognition of animals as sentient beings and the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 in the United States.

“Shareholders have had to be patient for longer than we had anticipated but with both Paraytec and Kirkstall now making material progress towards the commercialisation of their technologies your directors are optimistic that their patience will be rewarded,” said chief executive officer Trevor Brown.

At 1122 BST, shares in Braveheart Investment Group were up 17.14% at 8.2p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.