Public Funding for Conceivable Life Sciences Limited

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is an effective fertility treatment which however remains out of reach for 60% of UK patients due to high costs, arising from the need for highly trained staff and bespoke laboratories. The NHS only funds limited IVF cycles, while private clinics are operating at near-full capacity. Radical, scalable solutions to cut IVF costs and widen availability are thus urgently needed. In recent years, technologies to freeze embryos and eggs have transformed IVF, enabling better pregnancy outcomes and long-term fertility preservation in cancer patients, older couples, LGBTQ and infertile individuals. However, current techniques are highly operator-dependent and difficult to standardise, compounding existing inequalities. At present 44% of all embryos used in fertility treatment in the UK are frozen, but this figure is 84% in the US. As such, the development of cost-effective and safe freezing technologies would improve availability to the UK public as well as patient care. Conceivable Life Sciences is developing a suite of robotic assistants to automate the entire process of IVF, making it faster, safer and more reliable. Its PRESERVE-CR robot will standardise egg and embryo freezing, reducing related staff workload by 80% and the use of costly consumables by 25%, providing cost-savings for clinics and the public. The enhanced robotic precision will also enable a "gentle" protocol to minimise sample exposure to toxic chemicals during preparation. Conceivable's technology has the potential to vastly increase supply and lower costs through improvements to a key stage of the IVF process -- freezing. In this project, Conceivable will build an advanced PRESERVE-CR prototype, which will be installed and tested at a UK fertility clinic (CARE Fertility Manchester) in a validation study recruiting both private and NHS patients. Success could profoundly impact those currently denied access to parenthood due to infertility or lack of funds.