EDINBURGH, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Albagaia Ltd, the leaders in rapid test technology for Legionella, today announced the appointment of Dr Chris Hand as Chairman. Dr Hand has over 30 years’ experience in the medical diagnostics industry. He co-founded Abingdon Health Ltd, a leading company specialising in the development and commercialisation of in vitro diagnostic products, rapid tests and readers based on lateral flow technology. Chris served as a CEO of the company for 7 years and has been Chairman of Abingdon Health since 2015. He is also Chairman of Alta Bioscience Ltd, a specialist laboratory business performing chemical synthesis of peptides and antibody generation programmes.
Prior to this, Dr Hand co-founded Cozart Bioscience Ltd, the medical diagnostics company and was Chief Executive of Cozart plc, following IPO on AIM in 2004, until October 2007 when the company was sold to Concateno plc for £65 million. Chris was a non-executive director of Concateno plc until its sale to US-listed Alere Inc for £147m in August 2009, and was a non-executive director of Advanced Computer Software plc, the AIM-listed leading software and IT services provider until the sale to Vista Private Equity for £750m in March 2015.
Before co-founding Cozart, Chris was Director of Research for the European base of DPC (part of Siemens Healthcare Solutions) developing a wide range of immunodiagnostic kits in a variety of formats.
Greg Rankin, CEO of Albagaia said “This is the perfect time for Dr Hand to join us to head up our Executive board. We are at a pivotal moment in the history of the company as the market moves away from the traditional lab culture method, which is slow and erratic, towards solutions that provide actionable data in minutes. As suppliers of the world’s fastest water test for Legionella, we are poised to capitalise on this growth in rapid testing, where our ongoing innovations will continue to provide the information our partners need to deliver the level of protection against Legionnaires’ disease that today’s market demands.”
“We have begun an unprecedented programme of investment in the Hydrosense brand which is set to create significant global growth for the business. Dr Hand brings a vast depth of experience in increasing company valuations, as well as fresh energy and ideas that will help the business to make even more impact in our mission to help protect people globally from the deadly threat of Legionnaires’ disease.”
About Albagaia
Albagaia is the leader in rapid testing technology for Legionella via their Hydrosense brand. Hydrosense is the world’s only test that can detect Legionella on-site in 25 minutes (compared with 10-14 days for traditional methods) and yet can be performed by anyone with minimal training. It is used in water management, marine, offshore, healthcare and other sectors to protect organisations’ customers, employees and the wider public from the growing threat of Legionnaires’ disease.
