Somnus Scientific wins Emerging Technologies Health Award!

Bath based medical science company Somnus Scientific have won the Royal Society of Chemistry’s prestigious Emerging Technologies Competition 2021.

The Emerging Technologies Competition is the Royal Society of Chemistry’s annual initiative for early stage companies and academic entrepreneurs who want to commercialise their technologies to make a societal impact.

This was the ninth edition of the competition’s final which saw 24 finalists pitching to an internationally-renowned panel of judges from some of the world’s largest and most successful organisations, including AstraZeneca, PepsiCo and Unilever. As a winner Somnus now gain a share of no-strings funding and support to accelerate their work and bring cutting-edge science to the real world for the benefit of society. Health category judge William Goundry, from AstraZeneca, said: “As a judging panel we were extremely impressed by the quality of all of the finalists. There was some fantastic science on display, and it was a very tough deciding, but the judges were unanimous in their decision for the winner.

“The underlying science was clearly communicated through the pitch and it was exciting to see how this technology could impact many patients’ lives. The responses to the judges questions were well thought through, explaining how the technology would be further developed. Congratulations Somnus, we look forward to seeing how this emerging technology develops!”

Somnus was recognised for its work developing a product that will fulfil an unmet need in global healthcare. The team will utilise its novel state-of-the-art biosensor technology to develop innovative point-of-care intermittent and continuous sedation and anaesthesia monitoring devices. This will make propofol-based sedation and anaesthesia safer for patients and more cost effective for healthcare.

Sedation is central to the patient experience in healthcare and crucial for clinicians who are aiming to minimise discomfort and encourage recovery. Somnus Scientific are developing devices for use at the point of care. Using a unique biosensor clinicians will for the first time be able to quickly and easily measure the level of propofol in the patient’s blood, and so personalise the depth of sedation or anaesthesia for each patient.

Responding to the award Somnus CEO Dr Tim Craft said: “I’m astonished and lost for words, but I’m absolutely delighted. It’s a fantastic result for us not least because of the validation for winning the award so thank you very much.

“We’re really keen to do some work with our end users so that we know that we’re designing devices that are completely fit for purpose. So we want to get a really big group of end users together, facilitated so they don’t give us answers that they think we want to hear, and hone down on making sure our products completely fit for purpose. And then of course, the opportunity to network, be in contact with and mentored by some real experts in the industry is just fantastic – I’m over the moon.”