Oxford Immunotec wins 2013 Red Herring Top 100 Award
Oxford, UK and Marlborough, MA – 11 April 2013 – Oxford Immunotec is pleased to announce today that it has won a place in Red Herring‘s Top 100 Europe list for 2013.
Red Herring’s Top 100 Europe list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising new companies and entrepreneurs. Red Herring’s editors were among the first to recognize that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Salesforce.com, YouTube, and eBay would change the way we live and work.
“Selecting start-ups that show the most potential for disruption and growth is never easy,” said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. “We looked at hundreds and hundreds of candidates from all across the continent, and after much thought and debate, narrowed the list down to the Top 100 Winners. Each year the competition gets tougher but we believe Oxford Immunotec demonstrates the vision, drive and innovation that define a Red Herring winner.”
Commenting on the company’s inclusion in the Top 100 list, Dr Peter Wrighton-Smith, Oxford Immunotec’s Chief Executive Officer, said “We are delighted to have won this award, in competition against over 1,000 of Europe’s top private companies. It is testament to the continued dedication of all Oxford Immunotec’s employee’s across the world in building an exceptional company”.
Oxford Immunotec is one of only four healthcare companies to make the Top 100 list.
The 2013 Red Herring Top 100 Europe Winners were published on the Red Herring website yesterday.
Oxford Immunotec Ltd., a global immunology-focused diagnostic company, is headquartered near Oxford, UK; its US operations are based in Marlborough, MA. The company is developing novel new tests in the fields of infectious and immunological disease based primarily on its patented T-SPOT® technology, the first FDA-approved method for directly quantifying antigen-specific T cells.
T-SPOT technology is a simple and extremely accurate method of studying a person’s cellular immune response and, as such, provides a unique methodology to diagnose and monitor diseases driven by a T cell response.
Oxford Immunotec’s primary product, the T-SPOT.TB test, is one of two Interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) which detect latent TB infection and are replacing the 90-year old tuberculin skin test currently used for this purpose. The World Health Organisation estimated in 2006 that 50 million latent TB screening tests were performed each year, representing a greater than $1bn per annum market opportunity for TB testing globally. IGRAs are now endorsed in clinical guidelines in over 20 countries and the T-SPOT.TB test has now received regulatory approval in over 40 countries worldwide, including the US, Europe and China.
As well as developing & selling tests in kit form, Oxford Immunotec also runs a testing laboratory business in both the US and the UK (Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories) designed to provide unparalleled levels of expertise, service, turnaround time and simplicity for physicians wanting to access immunological tests such as the T-SPOT.TB test.
T-SPOT and the Oxford Immunotec logo are registered trademarks of Oxford Immunotec Ltd.
CPT is a registered trademark of the American Medical Association
About the Red Herring 100 List
Since 1996, technology industry executives, investors, and strategists have valued the Red Herring 100 lists as an instrument for discovering and advocating the most promising private ventures from around the world.
The Red Herring 100 award highlights exciting startups from Asia, Europe and the Americas. Hundreds of companies from each region are reviewed in a rigorous 3-step process that looks at all aspects of the company.
Applicants must be:
– A technology/life science company
– Headquartered in the specific region of the corresponding Red Herring 100 award program
– Privately held and not listed on any exchanges anywhere in the world
– Not a previous winner of a Red Herring 100 regional award
Red Herring 100 Awards are widely recognized as one of the industry’s more prestigious recognitions, with up to 1,400 candidates from each continent competing each year.
Red Herring has more than 20 criteria that have been in use since 1999 to analyze startups.
