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Bristol, UK, 11 March 2026. FluoretiQ Limited, developing rapid point-of-care diagnostics for bacterial infections in veterinary medicine, has been awarded 1st Place at the Hong Kong MedTech Innovation World Cup® 2026, one of the world’s most established open innovation competitions for wearable and health technologies.

FluoretiQ competed against more than 210 startups, scaleups and SMEs from across the globe pitching on the Grand Finale Main Stage on 5 March 2026 before an international jury drawn from the University of Cambridge, EY, Santander Bank, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), City University Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, STMicroelectronics, and other leading institutions. FluoretiQ was awarded 1st Place. Second place went to Lighthouse Tech SA (Switzerland) and third to United Sensing & MediTech (Hong Kong).

The win marks a landmark moment for FluoretiQ and for veterinary diagnostics, as the sole finalist with a product focused on supporting the veterinary health sub-category. The company’s VERI-5® Vet platform uses its proprietary Veri-5 ® technology to identify the most common canine and feline urinary tract infection (UTI) pathogens directly from urine, in 15 minutes, at the point of care. No send-away. No days of waiting. The answer while the patient is still in the room.

 

The Diagnostic Gap Vets Face Every Day

Urinary tract infections are among the most common conditions seen in veterinary practice. Yet the standard diagnostic pathway urine culture and sensitivity takes 24 to 72 hours to return results, long after the client has left the consult room and the vet has had to make an empirical antibiotic prescribing decision without knowing the causative pathogen.

 

This gap is not a failure of veterinary expertise. Vets are highly skilled clinicians, making critical decisions with limited available data and under real time pressure. The gap is a failure of the tools available to them. It is precisely this gap that drives the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics a key contributor to the global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis that poses one of the greatest threats to both animal and human health.

 

VERI-5® Vet changes this. With 91% overall sensitivity and 92% specificity at clinically relevant loads (≥10⁵ CFU/mL), the platform designed to give vets a fast, accurate answer in the consult window enabling earlier, targeted antibiotic therapy and supporting responsible prescribing without compromising animal welfare.

 

Now Open: The Technology Access Partnership

Alongside the competition win, FluoretiQ is today announcing that its Technology Access Partnership (TAP) is open for applications from forward-thinking veterinary practices across the UK.

The TAP is an early-access programme bringing together a cohort of innovative veterinary practices to be among the first to deploy VERI-5® Vet in a live clinical setting. TAP practices will work directly alongside the FluoretiQ team, shaping the product, informing how it integrates into real-world consult workflows, and helping define the future of point-of-care diagnostics for veterinary medicine.

TAP practices will be at the forefront of a shift in how UTIs are diagnosed and treated in veterinary practice and will be recognised as pioneers in responsible, data-driven antibiotic prescribing.

Places are strictly limited. Veterinary practices can register their interest at: fluoretiq./tap_signup/

 

 

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