LEADING medical technology company ODx have expanded their ground-breaking research team by appointing a new Chief Technology Officer.
Device development expert Dr Ben Wicks joins the Inverness based firm this month and will drive forward existing product plans and manufacturing programmes.
Dr Wicks, who has over 20 years med-tech experience, will lead the delivery of a point of care device which helps detect the ability of urinary tract infections (UTIs) to resist antibiotics.
The technology, currently going through clinical studies, will aid patients by getting faster diagnosis and treatment, saving the NHS costs on hospital admissions, lab time and reducing antibiotic prescriptions.
ODx can provide answers for treatment options within an hour, instead of the current time of two to three days.
Giles Hamilton, CEO of ODx, said: “We are delighted to continue to grow our experienced management team with the appointment of Dr Ben Wicks. After an extensive search, our team immediately saw Ben’s knowledge, experience and personal values were a great fit with ODx.”
Dr Ben Wicks has worked across a wide span of products and clinical applications from patient monitoring to respiratory drug delivery, as well as minimally invasive surgery to ophthalmology.
His experience has ranged from medtech starts-ups to early stage businesses, and he has spent time in the consulting environment, selling and managing strategic and device development projects for a mixture of blue chips and start-ups.
Dr Wicks joins ODx from Cydar Medical, a Cambridge UK based cloud computing company using AI to give endovascular surgeons a real-time, 3D view of the arteries they are repairing.
He said: “I’m extremely pleased to be joining the ODx team who are addressing such an important unmet need, the technology is as robust and reliable as it is groundbreaking and the team which ODx has assembled is world-class.
“Having conducted an in-depth audit of the company I was impressed not just by the tech but their careful consideration of the market, user centric design and manufacturability.
“ODx knows that the risk of failure in the market often comes from lack of consideration of the above from the outset. ODx has done its homework, understanding the needs of users and the market before diving into technology development.”
The medical testing business was established on Inverness Campus in August 2019, with £1.75m investment from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). In July, ODx announced 60 new jobs were being created to aid the expansion of its centre for scientific excellence.
In 2018, there were 172,000 hospital admissions for UTIs in the UK, with 12,000 of those presenting as chronic infections. The absence of a point of care antibiotic susceptibility test causes vast amount of suffering and avoidable mortality.
ODx is seeking people who suffer from UTIs to be volunteers & provide urine donations. Appointments can be booked via their website to attend their dedicated volunteer suite at Solasta House and support this vital research.
