US expansion beckons for focused Kalium Health

And at the earliest opportunity after the bells have rung out to signal 2024, Kalium plans to be toasting a new US operation in Texas, which is developing as a significant hub for BioMedTech plays across the Atlantic.

While Kalium certainly won’t be the lone star in the State of that nickname it will have boots on the ground in a significant market, with CTO Tanya Hutter already based in Austin. And all from a launchpad at Allia Future Business Centre in Cambridge that CEO Tom Collings discovered through a mixture of serendipity and sheer persistence.

Given the company’s need for laboratory and manufacturing space, the nature of the ideal facility was specific but none of the commercial property agents that Tom called could match Kalium’s requirements.

On learning that Allia had acquired and aimed to enhance facilities right next to its first base in King’s Hedges Road, Tom put in a chance call, popped in to take a look and immediately envisioned a golden future for Kalium in what used to be a science teaching facility.

Kalium masterminded the necessary fit-out themselves and have found the facility “an ideal launchpad” as the business continues to scale.

Identifying the Cambridge HQ was typical of the focus Kalium sets out to bring to its entire business blueprint. With American launch and expansion in mind, the company recently brought US healthcare leader Ranndy Kellogg onto the board. It looks to be an inspired decision.

The company’s new investment, set to close in Spring 2024, will fund activities necessary for international regulatory approvals and initial market launch in the US – including scaling up product manufacturing and establishing partnerships with innovative healthcare providers. Kellogg has the credentials to manage that important process.

Kalium Health is a relatively young company; it spun out of the University of Cambridge with seed funding in 2020 and has already raised several million to further develop and test its proprietary, miniaturised blood sensing technology targeting unmet clinical needs in cardiorenal monitoring.

The company has generated compelling laboratory data, is preparing for patient evaluation and is currently in talks with pharma and biotech companies about partnering on technology development and clinical trials.  

Kalium is developing an integrated hardware/software platform that provides a rapid, quantitative readout from a single drop of blood. The company’s initial focus is on the accurate monitoring of blood potassium levels to improve the management of Chronic Kidney Disease, which affects 800 million people worldwide, and the technology has wider applications and could help improve outcomes for a range of diseases.

Kalium’s technology has already attracted the attention of US investors who recognise the huge opportunity to create value in Chronic Kidney Disease management, which currently accounts for over 24 per cent of US Medicare spend.

Setting up in Texas promises to be a shrewd move for the business as it expands internationally. Collings says the company could have been wooed by the obvious credentials in life sciences of hubs such as Boston, North Carolina and California but felt Texas held a number of aces as well as huge growth potential.

He reasons: “It is not as expensive as Boston, California or North Carolina – other renowned life science hotspots – so that helps with recruitment and retention. 

“Also, being in Texas keeps us close to some excellent sources of healthcare innovation, such as the Dell Medical School in Austin which is like Cambridge Biomedical Campus only many times bigger.”

In a broader sphere, Kalium Health’s technology presents a wonderful pathway to learning for healthcare professionals – not just in the UK and US but worldwide – many of whom may have been trapped in the past in terms of the way they tackle people’s medical issues. Kalium’s approach provides a new way of approaching and treating patient conditions, so the technology also represents a learning curve opportunity for adopters and the sectors in which they operate.

Collaborators will discover that Kalium is all about strategic focus and not one of those ‘hit and hope’ young biotechs which scattergun their propositions because they have not actually drilled down to what their science does best.

Collings says Kalium Health, even within its own segment, has already identified the five most compelling applications for its technology. 
He emphasises that while Chronic Kidney Disease remains the initial focus, management are well aware that its precision testing would comfortably adapt to the identification and treatment of other conditions.

Collings says: “We quickly realised that we had to prioritise based on where we could have the biggest impact on healthcare, most rapidly. It is very difficult sometimes to say ‘no’ to partnership opportunities that could be attractive in the short term but don’t align 100% with our vision.

“We get approached by well-funded industry partners who want to get involved and say there is significant funding available if we pursue this or that specific area of healthcare. We believe that we have to be careful and not spread ourselves too thin.

“We identified where our proposition could make most difference soonest and have pursued that focused agenda. And at Allia we have found an ally in our business growth ambitions.

“The Future Business Centre is the perfect base for our business with flexible terms that were welcomed by our shareholders; with terrific office and lab facilities; a wonderful reception team and an environment that is genuinely stimulating. We recently hosted a seminar for 60 delegates from the University of Texas with impressive on-site conference facilities, which simply wouldn’t have been possible in many workplaces.

“We are proud to be advancing rapidly towards our goal of making a positive impact on patients’ lives from the excellent facilities that the Allia team makes available to innovative companies and entrepreneurs.”