Edx Medical Group (AIM:EDX), the Cambridge-based digital diagnostics developer, said its rapid pneumonia test is now deployed in NHS clinical practice after completing development and technical validation with its partners.
The Ventilator-Acquired Pneumonia (VAP) test detects viral, fungal and bacterial pathogens from a lung fluid sample, guiding antibiotic prescribing for critically ill patients on the John Farman Intensive Care Unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.
Results reach authorised ICU staff via a secure digital link within hours, against several days for traditional microbiological assays.
Hospital-acquired pneumonia costs the NHS an estimated £1.5 billion a year and consumes almost one million bed days, much of it avoidable through earlier detection.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) and Edx Medical have signed a four-year service agreement covering the assay, following Edx's 2025 licensing of the underlying intellectual property from CUH, Cambridge University and the UK Health Security Agency via Cambridge Enterprise.
The test was developed with Thermo Fisher Scientific and CUH, and Edx will now work with Thermo Fisher to build a kit version for wider distribution to UK and European hospitals, subject to regulatory approval.
"We are now working to generate real world data for regulators in order to make the VAP test available more widely as soon as possible and to help improve antibiotic custodianship and control of MRSA," said Dr Mike Hudson, chief executive of Edx Medical.
News Intelligence what this means for the company
Edx Medical has moved its Ventilator-Acquired Pneumonia test from validation into live NHS clinical use at Addenbrooke's Hospital, delivering results within hours instead of days. The deployment follows a four-year service agreement with Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and positions the company to build a commercial kit version for wider UK and European distribution, subject to regulatory approval—a pathway into a market where hospital-acquired pneumonia costs the NHS an estimated £1.5 billion annually.
- Thermo Fisher Scientific, the test's co-developer, is now tasked with building a kit version for wider distribution; success in that partnership will determine speed and scale of rollout beyond the single NHS site.
- Real-world data generation at Addenbrooke's will feed regulatory submissions for broader approval; delays or adverse findings in live use could slow or block the wider distribution plan.
This is Edx Medical's first live NHS deployment of an infectious-disease molecular test and validates its ability to move a diagnostic from development into clinical practice. The four-year service agreement provides revenue visibility, but the investment case hinges on whether the Thermo Fisher kit version achieves regulatory approval and achieves material uptake across UK and European hospitals—neither is assured.
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