Warwick-based 3P Innovation (www.3pinnovation.com) has secured a £35,000 investment from the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) through the Horizontal Innovation programme to bring a new ‘infection-cutting’ medical device to market.

The company says that catheters used in UK hospitals lead to 250,000 serious infections each year. It realised that a small moulded valve used in food dispensers could be re-purposed to solve this problem.

Following tests by the Bristol Urology Institute, its new valve is expected to reduce urinary tract infections by up to 50%.

Dave Seaward of 3P Innovation said: “We plan to use the funding to develop a production-ready design that is suitable for high-volume manufacture.”