MedAccess working capital facility to help Hemex boost access to sickle cell diagnosis

MedAccess today announced a $2.5 million working capital facility to help diagnostics innovator Hemex Health Inc. in scaling up access to its pioneering Gazelle® platform for sickle cell disease diagnosis. 

The facility will enable Hemex to scale to meet the growing demand for Gazelle® in India as well as countries in Africa and the Middle East with a high sickle cell disease burden. Gazelle® is a compact, battery-operated point-of-care (POC) device that delivers accurate results from a small blood sample in minutes. This means that patients can be counselled and treated straight away. It is the first and only portable device to replicate laboratory electrophoresis for sickle cell disease, making it transformative for diagnosing and monitoring treatment of sickle cell disease in remote and resource-limited settings.

“With Hemex Health’s Gazelle® platform, we are able to deliver rapid and reliable sickle cell screening to newborns in the most remote areas including Uganda, Tanzania, Mali and Togo,” said Dr. Alan Anderson, Executive Director of Sickle Forward, an international nonprofit organisation advancing sickle cell disease awareness and access to care. “This technology is reshaping what’s possible – turning early diagnosis and linkage to care into a reality for families who have long been beyond the reach of traditional laboratory testing.” 

Sickle cell disease is an inherited, lifelong condition that causes the body to produce abnormally shaped red blood cells. These cells block blood vessels and die earlier than healthy ones, leading to serious conditions including severe anaemia, painful episodes – known as sickle cell crises – and organ damage.

“Sickle cell disease is a painful and life-limiting condition that weighs a heavy burden on individuals, their families and their communities,” said MedAccess CEO Michael Anderson. “MedAccess’ facility will help Hemex to expand access to this critical diagnostic tool, pursuing its admirable strategy of prioritising rollouts in the countries and regions where the need is greatest. This is a clear example of how small amounts of smart finance can get innovations into the hands of health workers more quickly.”  

“With MedAccess’ support, we can bring testing closer to children’s homes – extending Gazelle® to primary health clinics even in the most remote areas,” said Patti White, CEO and Co-Founder of Hemex Health. “This expansion will ensure that more children can be diagnosed early and that families are spared the burden of long, costly trips to urban centres.”  

Although sickle cell disease is manageable with early diagnosis and treatment, most people in high-burden regions remain undiagnosed. Most deaths are caused by preventable or manageable complications, such as bacterial infections, malaria and severe anaemia. Because sickle cell disease is often undiagnosed in patients who die from these complications, the disease is 11 times more deadly than previously reported. Research shows that diagnosis and management of sickle cell disease by age two can reduce deaths by over 70%.

According to research published in The Lancet, India accounts for roughly one-fifth of all global sickle cell disease births – approximately 90,000-100,000 newborns each year. Recognising the urgent public health need to diagnose sickle cell disease, the Government of India has launched the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission, aiming to screen and provide care to millions at risk or affected. Many primary health care centres in India are using Gazelle® to test patients under the program. In Africa, an estimated 515,000 babies are born with sickle cell disease each year, with 50-90% dying before adulthood, according to a recently published study in Nature.