Biotangents gets £1.5m injection for cattle disease product

A medical diagnostics business based just outside Edinburgh has secured a £1.5 million funding injection to accelerate the roll out of its livestock disease diagnostic product.

Left to right: John McNicol of Kelvin Capital with Alan Hale, chief executive at Biotangents. Picture: Contributed

Biotangents, which is based at the Pentlands Science Park, has developed technology that provides vets with the ability to diagnose potentially fatal diseases in cattle, on-site and within the same day. Traditional processes involve off-site lab testing which can take up to seven days for results to come in, increasing the risk of other animals becoming infected.

Led by the investment syndicate Kelvin Capital, and with Scottish Investment Bank participation, the oversubscribed funding round will support the continued commercial development of the firm’s diagnostic platform technology.

The cash will be used to launch its initial products, which have been developed in-house, onto the market.

The Kelvin Capital syndicate, led by directors John McNicol and Angus Hay, represents private investors in the UK, Europe and the US.

Alan Hale, chief executive at Biotangents, said: “The global medical diagnostics market is vast and presents a range of opportunities for us to become a global leader in the engineering of biology to produce fast, sensitive, reliable and easy-to-use diagnostic products.

“We already know that our diagnostic platform technology can have a real impact on identifying infectious diseases, quickly, in animals and that our patent pending design can be adapted for use in many other products and applications.”

McNicol said: “The diagnostics market for livestock infectious diseases is growing due to increasing awareness of the impact that disease outbreaks can have on food security and public health.

“We need only look back to the £8 billion cost of the 2001 foot and mouth disease outbreak to highlight the enormous cost that infectious diseases can have.

“We invested in Biotangents in its first round of funding in 2017 and we are delighted to continue to back the business with a further syndicate investment.

“It is a business that is not only bringing rapid improvements to livestock care leading to public health improvements but it is also disrupting a traditional industry.”