Awards win for city tech firm
The boss of an innovative Inverness medical device company has scooped a prestigious trophy at Scotland’s Life Science Awards and came close to collecting another.
Giles Hamilton, chief executive at ODx, won the rising stars: extraordinary talent award and was runner-
up in the business leadership category.
Medical technology specialist ODx opened its Inverness Campus facility in 2019 to develop a test that helps detect the ability of urinary tract infections (UTIs) to resist antibiotics.
The test will aid patients by enabling faster diagnosis and treatment, and will also save NHS costs on hospital admissions, lab time and reduced antibiotic prescriptions.
Testing for UTIs is typically carried out in hospital laboratories and it can take two to three days to get results back to GPs and patients.
ODx can reduce the time for test results down to under an hour and can be used by GPs as well as hospital departments and specialist clinics around the world.
Mr Hamilton, said: “I’m delighted the work of the ODx team and its partners has been recognised. Over 150 million people around the world suffer from UTIs each year and they can lead to potentially fatal urosepsis.
“We hope that ODx technology can have a global impact, and that sufferers, young and old, can get better and more efficient treatment.”
The company employs around 70 people in highly skilled roles and plans to expand further.
Mr Hamilton added: “We are looking forward to working more closely with the NHS and communities across Scotland and overseas to help UTI sufferers, their relatives and health care professionals.
“Scotland’s world-class life sciences sector contributes more than £3 billion a year to the economy and is globally recognised for innovation and impact.”