When a blood sample provides 300 answers
Macro Array Diagnostics (MADx) is an Austrian medical technology company with one goal: to diagnose allergies and food intolerances more quickly, more accurately and more comprehensively.
Using a single blood sample, the ALEX (Allergy Explorer) test platform analyses up to 300 allergens simultaneously – a breakthrough for patients suffering from an unclear or complex allergy who previously had to rely on many individual tests.
When MADx was founded in 2016, the company faced a typical start-up challenge: The idea was strong, the budget was limited, and the path from concept to certified product seemed long. What MADx needed was not merely a contractor, but a partner who would think alongside them, offer honest advice and provide everything from a single source: from the initial idea to the finished product. MADx found this partner in BIT.
Those who think for themselves don’t always say yes.
When MADx approached BIT, the company had a specific request: a rough project plan for a device to automate a process that had previously been carried out manually. We could have simply complied with this request, but instead we suggested a different approach:
Rather than investing directly in the ‘big’ solution, we first recommended a feasibility study: where does the actual technical risk lie, and can it be resolved within a manageable budget? The focus was on the optics, the heart of the future device. This approach enabled MADx to gain initial experience and gave BIT the chance to live up to the trust placed in us.
What followed was hardly planned: in a casual conversation, MADx mentioned wanting to have the results of the optical development incorporated into a small, cost-effective and easy to handle reader for mass production by a third party, because they didn’t know that BIT was capable of doing exactly that. Three months later, MADx held its very first product, the ImageXplorer, in its hands – a product developed by BIT in just three months and manufactured as a serial product.
Our services at a glance:
- Feasibility
- Full System Development
- Integration and Verification Testing
- Rapid Prototyping
- Project Management
- Design for Manufacturing
- Final Assembly and Integration
- Nahtloser Transfer aus RnD
- Lifecycle-Support
- Sustaining Engineering
- Regulatory Consultancy
From milestone to milestone – together
Early successes marked the start of an extraordinary partnership. What characterised this collaboration from the very beginning was genuine openness on both sides. MADx set out clear requirements, whilst BIT provided honest assessments, even if that meant challenging the client. BIT’s CTO, Dr Konstantin Christou, still recalls the decisive moment when MADx received the first fully functional prototype. The excitement was tangible on both sides. From that moment on, one thing was certain: come what may, we would take the next step together. A deep mutual trust grew out of that initial project – and that trust led to continuity, which resulted in three series-production products in just five years.
“We found BIT’s project estimates to be very ambitious and were very impressed that these estimates were successfully delivered in all cases within budget and ahead of schedule.”