- January 22, 2025
Across Europe, around 150 million people suffer from various forms of allergy, while in Poland, 40% of the population shows symptoms of this disease. Estimates show that over the next decade more than half of Europeans will be affected by allergic diseases. According to physicians, diagnostics plays a key role in the fight against allergies. The Polish invention, which enables quick and precise reading of the results of skin allergy tests, may contribute to its improvement.
- The increasing incidence of allergies is a major problem. The European Commission estimates that by 2025 half of Europeans will be affected by allergic diseases," says Newseria agency Dr. Jacek Stępień, chairman of the Milton Essex supervisory board and inventor of the SkinNext tool for rapid diagnosis of allergies.
According to the European Commission, allergies are currently the most serious health problem, as well as cancer. It is estimated that around 150 million people across Europe suffer from various forms of allergy, including one in three children. The World Health Organisation reports that allergic diseases are the third most common chronic diseases and currently represent a serious threat to civilisation.
None of the other diseases of civilization records such a rate of growth. According to the European Agency for Allergology and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), in the next 10 years around 50% of Europeans will be affected by allergic diseases.
A nationwide ECAP study shows that about 40% of Poles show symptoms of allergy. This percentage has positive tests for commonly occurring allergens. About 9 million Poles suffer from allergic rhinitis and 5.5 million from asthma symptoms. However, only 30% of allergy sufferers have been diagnosed with specialist tests, are aware of the source of the condition and undergo systematic treatment. As Dr Jacek Stępień emphasizes, proper diagnostics is the basis for allergy treatment and it will be one of the biggest challenges in the face of the growing scale of diseases.
- The existing solutions for the detection of allergies do not allow us to rationally predict whether we will deal with the problem of initial screening diagnostics, especially on such a large scale - believes Dr. Jacek Stępień.
Two types of allergy tests are commonly performed on the market: in vivo functional tests, which are performed by puncture method (application of allergens to the skin surface), and in vitro tests performed by the laboratory method of determining the specific level of antibodies.
- The remaining tests, which are currently available on the market, are intended for research and experimental purposes. These two types of studies, skin tests and in vitro antibody assays, compete with each other and have a similar market share. International bodies, including the European Academy of Allergology, however, recommend using skin tests as the so-called golden standard in allergy diagnostics - says Dr. Jacek Stępień.
Founded last year, Milton Essex was founded for the purpose of commercialization and implementation of the invention, which is a non-invasive tool for quick reading of the results of skin allergy tests. The Polish invention, named SkinNext, is covered by an international patent application. It complements the traditional skin tests, which are now the most popular diagnostic method and can read the results in just 20 seconds.
- We want to improve those tests that are available on the market instead of competing with them. We are not going to introduce a completely new diagnostic method. Our goal is to change the quality so that the currently available diagnostics performed with the skin test method is full, accurate and based on scientifically tested and confirmed functional markers - says Dr. Jacek Stępień.
The Polish invention is to enable full automation of allergy diagnostics in the future, reduce its costs and simplify and accelerate the entire diagnostic process. Milton Essex, the commercialization company, already has a third generation product. Its creator, Dr. Jacek Stępień, makes the market success of his invention dependent on the growing scale of allergic diseases on a global scale.
- When assessing the value of a medical device, we look at whether it is useful and helpful for a large group of patients. We can imagine that with each year of using our product, the pool of allergology results with the use of the new imaging technique increases. This may help to answer the question of what are population characteristics, genetic or geographical conditions. Perhaps it will allow us to approach the whole allergy problem in a different way," says Jacek Stępień, PhD.
Diagnostic tools account for around 40% of the entire medical device market, estimated at $228 billion globally. Milton Essex sees an opportunity in the dynamic development of this market, which is located in the fast-growing segment of technologically advanced and competitively priced diagnostic instruments. Last year, the company received a grant for the development of its invention from the National Centre for Research and Development, the value of which reached almost PLN 3.5 million.
