Proof of Market of an Innovative Microbial Air Sampler Hybrid (MASH)

The measurement of microbial air contamination is essential in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, healthcare & food to ensure legislative standards are met. There are several case studies where current samplers have failed costing £M's e.g. Pfizer plant banned from supplying drugs to EU due to aseptic processes not optimised to reduce risk of microbial contamination; Chiron’s failure to monitor microbial contamination led a contamination (and withdrawal) of 48M flu vaccines – half of U.S. demand. We have identified an opportunity to develop an innovative sampler using the smaller agar plate, capable of sampling 1m3 in 10 minutes at high efficiency. The purpose of this PoM is to confirm the market appetite, segmentation and technology development path. The global market for air monitoring is expected to reach $6.16bn, by 2019, and our early projections are 0.3% of market penetration, equating to revenues of $18.5M (£13.9m) by year-3 post development.