Israel’s Sight Diagnostics to install its blood diagnostics devices in UAE and Saudi Arabia

Israeli medical device company S.D. Sight Diagnostics Ltd. announced on Wednesday a distribution partnership with Phoenix Capital. Throughout 2021 Sight will provide OLO analyzers – the company’s decentralized, lab-quality diagnostic technology – to medical centers across the Middle East with the first Israeli-made systems to be supplied to Emirati hospitals as soon as this year.

Phoenix Capital will first distribute Sight OLO to the nine medical centers it owns across the United Arab Emirates. And over the next year, Sight will work with Phoenix Capital to start expanding OLO’s install base in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

Most outpatient clinics in the UAE and across the GCC are currently operating mini-labs with legacy diagnostic technologies like flow cytometry, which require large, expensive machines that aren’t suited for point-of-care (POC) settings. As such, there is an increasing demand for modern POC diagnostics in the Middle East and Africa, with the market projected to reach $2.85 billion by 2024.

Sight OLO enables fast, accurate, and convenient blood diagnostics by delivering CBC results in minutes right at the point-of-care. About the size of a toaster oven, OLO is a small, compact, and light-weight device that allows for a quick and simple set-up wherever it’s needed. Unlike traditional CBC analyzers, Sight OLO does not require reagents or manual quality control checks, making it easier for smaller clinics or independent practices to access and operate.

“We chose Sight OLO because it simply meets the needs of the clinics we distribute to. With the influx of patients due to COVID-19, having access to fast, accurate finger-prick diagnostics is essential to quickly and correctly triage and treat our clinic’s patients,” said Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah, Chairman of Phoenix Capital.

“We’re determined to democratize access to rapid, accurate, and convenient diagnostics in countries around the world,” said Yossi Pollak, CEO, and co-founder of Sight Diagnostics. “We’re looking forward to expanding into this new market through our partnership with Phoenix Capital to help meet the needs of emergency rooms, clinics, hospitals, and other care facilities that have been impacted by Covid-19.”

Sight Diagnostics was founded in 2011 by Pollak and Dr. Daniel Levner. It raised a $71 million financing round in August, which brought its total funding to more than $124 million to date. It’s recent funding rounds were led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, CK Hutchison Group, Longliv Ventures, and OurCrowd.

Sight’s latest blood analyzer, Sight OLO, performs a Complete Blood Count, the most commonly ordered blood test, in minutes. It’s compact and is designed to be used in a variety of settings. Sight OLO creates a digital version of a blood sample by capturing more than 1,000 highly detailed images from just two drops of blood obtained from a finger prick or venous sample. These images are then interpreted by proprietary and fully automated AI algorithms. Sight’s first product, Parasight, has been used to detect malaria in nearly one million tests across 24 countries. The company has offices in the U.K., the U.S., and Israel.