Sepsis remains a major public health issue.

OCEAN Dx is proud to participate in the ninth meeting of the European Sepsis Alliance (https://www.europeansepsisalliance.org/news/2026/3/18/now-live-from-brussels-9th-annual-meeting-of-the-european-sepsis-alliance-join-the-livestream-on-youtube-now).

We look forward to meeting European policymakers, authorities, and sepsis experts.

🛑 Sepsis remains one of the most urgent challenges in global healthcare, causing millions of deaths each year. For clinicians on the front lines, the bridge between uncertainty and life-saving treatment is Rapid Diagnostics.

We are incredibly proud to announce that OCEAN Dx has been invited to participate to the Diagnosis and Diagnostic Stewardship symposiumorganized by the SepsisAlliance (https://learn.sepsis.org/products/sepsis-alliance-symposium-diagnostics-and-diagnostic-stewardship).

Why This Matters:

This event brings together international experts dedicated to one mission: improving sepsis detection and patient management. At OCEAN Dx, we believe that advancing reliable diagnostics is the cornerstone of:

• Early Intervention: Reducing the time to optimal therapy.
• Patient Outcomes: Reducing mortality rates and long-term complications
• Antimicrobial Stewardship: Ensuring the right drug for the right patient, preserving the efficacy of our antibiotics.

We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in this important symposium and look forward to the collaborative breakthroughs ahead.

OCEAN Dx, a pioneer in rapid diagnostic solutions, today announced the successful completion of a clinical evaluation study for its innovative rapid diagnostic test for sepsis (formerly known as septicemia). Conducted by Dr. Antoine Dewitte’s team in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Haut-Lévêque Hospital (Bordeaux University), the study involving 110 patients achieved results consistent with the gold standard for sepsis detection. This major breakthrough marks an important milestone in OCEAN Dx’s mission to provide clinicians with fast, accurate, and life-saving diagnostic tools. By improving patient triage, supporting treatment decisions, enhancing antibiotic management (including de-escalation), and helping to prevent antibiotic resistance, this test has the potential to revolutionize sepsis care worldwide.

 OCEAN Dx is supported by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region authority and Bpifrance.

A COMPANY SERVING PUBLIC HEALTH

OCEAN Dx was founded by Franck Tarendeau and Cyril Dian, two medical research scientists with extensive experience in the vaccine and in vitro diagnostics. The company develops innovative diagnostic solutions targeting infectious diseases, with a particular focus on sepsis. Other diseases include pneumonia, meningitis and Lyme disease.

Sepsis kills 11 million people worldwide every year and generates massive healthcare costs. In the USA and Europe alone, sepsis accounts for $100 billion in annual hospitalization expenses*. The cost of treating sepsis syndromes or victims experiencing septic shock in an intensive care unit (ICU) can exceed €30,000 per patient.

 The global market for a rapid sepsis diagnosis test is estimated at €8.4 billion.

OCEAN Dx builds on its unique patented technologies to deliver advanced diagnostic solutions for managing patients with infectious diseases, particularly in critical situations: fast turnaround, broad pathogen detection and exceptional sensitivity. The OCEAN Dx sepsis test is designed to rapidly identify the infection-causing pathogens within hours helping physicians select the most effective antimicrobial strategy without delay.

The clinical evaluation study carried out with the Bordeaux University Hospital delivered outstanding results on 237 whole blood samples collected at the patient’s bedside. The test, which has an impressive detection spectrum covering 1,000 bacteria, provided results in 5-hour turnaround time. It achieved 100% detection sensitivity and 100% detection Negative Predictive Value compared to the reference blood culture test and showed a strong concordance of identification with mass spectrometry of 95%. These promising clinical evaluation results will be presented at the Sepsis Update Congress 2025 (October 02-04 Heidelberg) and will be published in a scientific journal.

” This clinical study clearly demonstrates the potential of OCEAN Dx to transform the management of patients with suspected sepsis in the ICU,” said Dr. Antoine Dewitte, principal investigator at Bordeaux University Hospital. “In our study, the test detected nearly three times more bloodstream infections than conventional blood cultures, with perfect sensitivity and negative predictive value, and results available very quickly. Such performance could enable physicians to adapt antimicrobial therapy much earlier, improving patient outcomes while reducing unnecessary broad-spectrum antibiotic use and the emergence of resistance. Beyond its immediate clinical value, this technology could revolutionize the way we diagnose sepsis and open new perspectives to better understand this complex syndrome.”

 “We are extremely pleased to announce that the goals of our sepsis rapid diagnostic test evaluation study have been achieved, demonstrating unprecedented clinical performance, with outstanding reliability and assay consistency and an excellent average time-to-result of just 5 hours, that we expect to decrease to 3,5 hours in its commercial version. This is a great improvement since the detection and identification of sepsis-causing pathogens using blood cultures and complementary tests typically takes between 2 and 6 days.” commented Franck Tarendeau, CEO of OCEAN Dx.

 “With the success of the clinical evaluation study, we are confident that our rapid diagnostic product is ready for clinical trials and holds strong potential to become an alternative to blood cultures and related identification tests in the near future” Mr. Tarendeau added.

 OCEAN Dx is completing the industrialization of its sepsis test and plans clinical trials in 2026, targeting CE marking. OCEAN Dx will launch its rapid sepsis diagnostic test in Europe by 2029.

 *https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8078/text

ABOUT OCEAN Dx

Created in 2019, OCEAN Dx is a Bordeaux-based start-up specialized in in vitro diagnostics of infectious diseases. Its head office is located at SEML Route des lasers – Bâtiment Pleione – 11, Avenue de Canteranne in Pessac, France. OCEAN Dx is a deep tech company in the field of health care. The company is the winner of the i-Lab 2020 Competition and the i-Nov 2020 Competition.

  www.oceandx.com

ABOUT THE MAGELLAN ANESTHESIA-INTENSIVE CARE UNIT (Haut-Lévêque Hospital-Bordeaux University Hospital)

The Magellan Anesthesia and Intensive Care Department, located at the Haut-Lévêque Hospital (www.chu-bordeaux.fr/CHU-de-Bordeaux/Hôpitaux-et-sites-du-CHU/Groupe-hospitalier-Sud/) is one of the five anesthesia-ICU departments of the Bordeaux University Hospital. When it comes to management of medical and surgical abdominal and thoracic pathologies this department is at the cutting edge, with its ICU and recovery units and state-of-the-art technical facilities, providing innovative endoscopic, radiological and surgical interventional techniques, including liver and lung transplant surgery. The Magellan anesthesia-intensive care team also provides a strong framework for clinical and translational research (CTR), in close collaboration with the University of Bordeaux, focusing especially on infections, inflammation, microbiology, and sepsis immunology.

The Start-up OCEAN Dx, specialised in the in vitro diagnostic of infectious diseases (Bordeaux, France), won the i-Nov 2020 contest organized by the French General Secretary for Investment. The 400 000 € prize will help OCEAN Dx to automate its ultra-fast diagnostic test for sepsis and develop similar ultra-fast test for meningitis, pneumoniae and Lyme disease.

BIOTECHNOLOGY AS A SAFEGUARD FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

OCEAN Dx is a start-up company founded in 2019 by researchers from the field of biotechnology. Its founders Franck Tarendeau and Cyril Dian are in vitro diagnostic, bioproduction, and biochemistry experts. OCEAN Dx aims at developing innovative tools for the diagnosis of severe infectious diseases. The i-Nov award underlines the recognition of OCEAN Dx as a future French leader of in vitro diagnostic. Its cutting-edge technologies protected by international patents will revolutionize the diagnostic of infectious diseases and allow OCEAN Dx to tackle the global market.

“Thanks to i-Nov 2020 prize we will adapt our ultra-fast sepsis test to the robotic equipment already available in hospitals” says Franck Tarendeau CEO and co-founder of OCEAN Dx.

OCEAN DX TARGETS NEW INFECTIOUS DISEASES

By harvesting all the potential of its technology developed for sepsis, OCEAN Dx R&D teams  are now developing innovative solutions for other diseases that are currently left without efficient means of diagnosis such as meningitis, pneumoniae and Lyme disease.

Meningitis affects 3 million people every year. The presence of microbe in the cerebrospinal fluid is responsible of Meningitidis and leads to patient death in a few hours only. Current fast diagnostic tests for Meningitidis don’t cover large number of microbe, especially bacteria. The global market for meningitis is estimated at 280 million $ per year.

Pneumoniae are caused by the presence of pathogens in the lung. 150 million persons are affected by this disease every year and 20 million require hospitalisation. As for sepsis, pneumoniae diagnostic would greatly benefit from an ultra-fast test able to orientate anti-bacterial treatment earlier on during the development of the disease. The global market for an ultra-fast test of pneumoniae is estimated at several billion $ per year.

Lyme disease affects 600 000 people every year and is transmitted by tick bites. Current diagnostic methods can take several weeks to be able to detect the presence of the pathogen after a tick bite and often comes too late to allow anti-bacterial treatment to prevent wide spread of the pathogen in the body. The global market for an early test of Lyme disease is estimated at 18 million $ per year.

The Start-up OCEAN Dx, specialised in  infectious diseases in vitro diagnostic (Bordeaux, France), won the i-Lab 2020 contest organized by the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation. The 250 000 € prize will enable OCEAN Dx to complete its R&D program and test the pre-industrial prototype of its first product, an ultra-fast diagnostic test for sepsis that is scheduled to reach the market in 2026.

SEPSIS IS A WORLDWIDE HEALTH ISSUE

Sepsis is characterised by a generalized infection of the whole body due to a pathogen spreading in the blood stream or in tissues inducing organ failures, and in 35% of cases leads to the patient’s death. Globally, sepsis kills 6 million people each year and represents a significant cost for health systems (1,5 billion € in France; 24 billion $ in the United-States). Global market for such an ultra-fast diagnostic test of sepsis is estimated at 8,4 billion €.

By identifying the responsible pathogen(s) in only a few hours, sepsis mortality will decrease from 35% today to only 5%. OCEAN Dx’s test will help physicians to determine the most effective antibiotic strategy for their patients and will also prevent the spread of multi-resistant bacterial strains.

“The ultra-fast diagnostic test of sepsis from OCEAN Dx will allow physicians to immediately use a targeted therapy and reduce patient’s mortality and morbidity. It will also help reduce the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria” says Dr Antoine Dewitte, Doctor at the intensive care unit at Bordeaux’s University Hospital.

A STEP FORWARD TOWARDS A MARKETABLE PRODUCT

OCEAN Dx is a start-up company founded by researchers from the field of biotechnology. Its founders Franck Tarendeau and Cyril Dian are in vitro diagnostic, bioproduction, and biochemistry experts. OCEAN Dx aims at developing innovative tools for the diagnosis of severe infectious diseases. Its first product is an ultra-fast diagnostic test for sepsis.

In 2019, a proof of concept for an ultra-fast diagnostic test of sepsis was obtained. Earlier this year, mid-2020, OCEAN Dx produced its first prototype product. With the support of i-Lab2020 contest and the “Jeunes Pousses” grant from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, OCEAN Dx R&D program will lead to the production of a first pre-industrial prototype which is expected to be delivered by the end of 2021. Finally, the OCEAN Dx team expects a clinical trial to be concluded by 2024. A patent was submitted in 2020 and additional patents are expected to be submitted in 2021.

OCEAN Dx receives €202k non-dilutive funding from Region Nouvelle-Aquitaine to create its first product prototype.

OCEAN Dx receives €90k grant from Bpifrance French agency to create a Proof Of Concept of its IVD sepsis test.