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INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
Guanine is seeking investments to develop and launch inexpensive, accurate, portable pathogen detection tests with AI diagnosis |
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EXPONENTIAL GROWTH OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
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Pathogens including viruses, bacteria, fungi and protozoa can infect nearly every part of the body and cause severe illness and death. The leading causes of pathogen death worldwide in 2019 included: sepsis blood infections (11 million), upper respiratory diseases (4 million), lower respiratory infections (2.5 million), neonatal disorders (1.9 million), diarrheal diseases (1.5 million), tuberculosis (1.2 million), HIV/AIDS (0.9 million), and malaria (0.6 million). COVID-19 added to the annual pathogen death total with 1.8 million reported and 3 million estimated deaths in 2020, and 3.6 million reported and 11.9 million estimated deaths in 2021. This raised the combined total of the top 5 infection deaths to over 31 million. In comparison the leading causes of death from non-pathogenic causes include cardiovascular diseases (18.6 million), cancers (10.1 million), stroke (8.9 million), digestive diseases (2.6 million), dementia (1.6 million), liver diseases (1.5 million) and kidney diseases (1.4 million). The University of Oxford Big Data Institute estimated the number of deaths linked to 23 pathogens and 88 pathogen-drug combinations across 204 countries and territories in 2019. It found that antimicrobial resistant bacteria was directly responsible for 1.3 million deaths worldwide and was associated with another 5.0 million deaths.
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UNMET PATHOGEN DETECTION NEEDS
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Deaths from pathogens and, in particular, drug resistant pathogens are likely to increase. The world is experiencing:
(1) more drug resistant strains of viruses, bacteria, fungi and protozoa, (2) less available antibiotics that will kill drug resistant strains and there are very few new antibiotics being developed, (3) more travel and migration of infected people, (4) more routes to transmit pathogens to high density populations including air, insects, ticks, food, water, vermin, animals, unprotected sex, shared needles, etc, (5) more elderly, immunocompromised, co-morbidity, and malnourished people whose immune systems are unable to fight infections, (6) an increased use of prescribed medications and drugs-of-abuse that suppress the immune system, (7) lifetime accumulation of chronic pathogens in biofilms such as herpes and Epstein Barr virus, and (8) more rogue laboratories that have greater capability to produce biothreats and terrorist who may obtain virulent pathogens for nefarious uses. |
Source: National Institutes of Health
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MARKET OPPORTUNITY
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The infectious disease testing and diagnosis industry can be disrupted by innovation. PCR was invented in the 1980’s and was designed for lab use. Recent innovations for COVID-19 allowed mobility but its detection limit and sensitivity were not as god as lab instruments and were not suitable for multiplexing a wide rage of pathogens. Immunoassays were invented in the 1950’s and provide up to 35% false results in antigen tests. Cultures were invented in the 1890’s and take several days to produce results.
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INVESTOR DECK
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