Finnish medtech company CurifyLabs has been awarded a €2.5 million grant by the European Innovation Council (EIC) to advance technology supporting hospital and community pharmacies in creating tailored medicines.
CurifyLabs specialises in enabling personalised medicines, born out of ten years of research undertaken by Niklas Sandler Topelius at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. Specifically researching into modernising extemporaneous drug manufacturing caught the attention of Charlotta Topelius, a serial entrepreneur who saw an opportunity to tackle the manual compounding processes in pharmacies.
With this joint collaboration, CurifyLabs was founded in 2021 with the goal of digitising and streamlining pharmacy compounding. Both pet lovers, Charlotta and Niklas saw a need for technology to enable more effective, tailored treatments for pets. With the mission of being committed to providing solutions which enable optimal treatments for all patients.
In March 2023, Curifylabs launched ‘The MiniLab’, the first bespoke automated user-friendly manufacturing technology for compounding pharmacies. The device is now available in several innovative pharmacies in multiple European markets including Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.
The MiniLab is a unique and proprietary manufacturing approach, enabling compounding pharmacies to produce tailored 3D printed drugs through the use of printable formulations. It also reduces the time needed for pharmacy preparations up to 70% compared to manual compounding, and allows medicines to be tailored to each patient in an affordable way.
In April 2023, Curifylabs received a grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Programme to advance its MiniLab solution for personalised medicines manufacture at hospital and community pharmacies. The EIC Accelerator award supports, in particular, start-up companies in developing and scaling up game-changing innovations in the EU.
The project, which will be fully funded by the EIC with a 100%, non-dilutive grant, will standardise the process for developing 3D printing compatible drug formulations and quality control solutions. This will make MiniLab highly scalable across different therapeutic areas with a focus on paediatrics and oncology.
Charlotta Topelius, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CurifyLabs, commented, “we are delighted to have received this prestigious grant from the European Innovation Council to further develop MiniLab and bring a high-quality 3D printing solution for compounding of personalised medicines to pharmacists across Europe.”
“There’s a large and growing demand for personalised therapies and our solution is aimed at helping compounding pharmacists meet those needs.”
Sources: CurifyLabs
