One of Scotland?s emerging biotechnology companies, YAbA Limited, has received £1m of funding to develop a new chlamydial diagnostic kit from a syndicate of investors including 3i, Scottish Enterprise, Lion Biomedical, Eastern Scotland Investments, ProSeed and Braveheart Ventures Limited.

The new kit will be a major breakthrough in combating the growing epidemic of Chlamydia, an infection that causes infertility among women. The test will help to eradicate sexually transmitted conditions as well as identify infertility chlamydial infection, pelvic inflammatory disease and reactive arthritis.

It is estimated that the global market for the new test is valued at $300 million with 900,000 tests a year being carried out in the UK where positive diagnoses are up by almost 20% among women and 25% in men. Health services worldwide are spending $5 billion a year in treating chlamydial related infections.

The new test, which can involve either taking a finger tip sample of blood or saliva, will be substantially cheaper than other current tests which require trained personnel, a dedicated space to run and are non-automatable.

YAbA Ltd headed by chief executive Scott Johnstone is developing the milestone advance in the fight against the sexually transmitted infection. He commented:

"We are delighted to secure this round of funding which will enable us to develop the kit that will benefit millions of people throughout the world. We hope that it can be in production and available to the NHS by January 2002 to combat the spread of Chlamydia. One of the main reasons for the rapid spread of the disease is that more than half of those infected have no symptoms therefore they pass it on to new sexual partners.

"We have to make inroads in identifying these asymptomatic carriers. The economics of the test we have developed will make it financially feasible to introduce a screening programme rather than simply testing people who present themselves at clinics. Once the infection has been detected it can be easily treated with antibiotics, especially if it is diagnosed early."

Since the company formed 2 years ago, it has produced a new diagnostic kit, "Panclabort™", that detects the presence of the bug responsible for inducing chlamydial abortion, one of the biggest killers of unborn lambs. Orders have been secured on a worldwide basis and discussions are also underway with a major animal health company regarding various forms of collaboration.

A different form of Chlamydia infects ruminant animals and YAbA have already successfully commercialised their research for application in the field of animal welfare, where their work could be worth millions of pounds every year to sheep farmers world-wide.

YAbA was formed two years ago as a spinout company from Moredun Research Institute, Penicuik, with an aim to commercialise technology in the field of veterinary and human diagnostics. It raised seed round funding from the Scottish Technology Fund, backed by 3i and Scottish Enterprise, and was set-up with the help of Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian.

Notes to Editors

1. In addition to the investment companies, The Bank of Scotland has also provided extensive support through a Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme loan.
2. Information on Panclabort
   It is estimated that almost 2 million ewes in Britain alone are infected with the killer bug Chlamydophila abortus. The resulting abortion of lambs is currently estimated to be costing British farmers at least £15 million a year.

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