Thericon set out to cut the number of bladder tumours surgeons miss during endoscopy, which its EIC project linked to cancer coming back. The company, founded in Mannheim in 2019, developed rMSI, real-time multispectral imaging: a light source and dual-sensor camera that show normal colour, blood vessels and fluorescent tumour markers in a single image, instead of forcing surgeons to switch between modes.
The European Innovation Council committed €2,500,000 to a €4.09 million project planned to run from October 2022 to September 2024. Its only CORDIS report, covering the first year, describes the system and says clinical evaluation was "in preparation". On 26 March 2024 the Mannheim local court appointed a provisional insolvency administrator for the company, according to the official notices. No final report or results for the project have been published.
Company file
- Legal entity
- Thericon GmbH, HRB 734768 (Mannheim court); address now in Gechingen
- Founded
- 2019
- Founders
- Nikolaos Deliolanis, Bartłomiej Grychtol, Steffen Schabel
- Technology
- Real-time multispectral imaging for endoscopy (rMSI)
- Earlier funding
- German GO-Bio programme
- EIC project
- rMSI, planned 1 Oct 2022 to 30 Sep 2024
- Insolvency
- Provisional administrator appointed 26 March 2024 (case 1 IN 1280/24)
What Happened to Thericon
The court order of 26 March 2024, case 1 IN 1280/24, was published in April 2024. The register now gives the company's address as Gechingen rather than its former Mannheim base, and its last share capital increase was in May 2023. Thericon's website could not be reached in September 2026. We found no announcement of a buyer for the technology or of the company's continuation.
The Technology: Seeing Everything at Once
The report describes a multispectral light source, a dual-sensor 4K camera with high dynamic range, and software that visualises "multiple fluorescence contrast agents - simultaneously without switching". In 2021 the company described pilot studies in which conventional systems missed up to 20% of tumours while rMSI found all lesions, according to Gesundheitsindustrie BW; an ex vivo validation in bladder tumours was published in Translational Andrology and Urology.
"We overlay different images to create a multi-parametric view so surgeons can see all tissue information in one image."
Nikolaos Deliolanis, co-founder, Thericon, 2021What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
The project promised "accurate detection of cancerous tissue in endoscopic surgery" and projected a 20% cut in cancer recurrence. The first-year report describes the system design; the clinical evaluation that would test that promise was still being prepared. CORDIS still lists the project as signed, not terminated, and shows nothing after September 2023.
- Integrated imaging systemDesignedPer first-year report.
- Clinical evaluationNot reported"In preparation" in 2023.
- A viable companyFailedInsolvency, March 2024.
The Money
Thericon's accounts are filed in Germany but not freely displayed. The register shows capital increases in 2020, 2022 and 2023, the last in May 2023, ten months before the insolvency. CORDIS does not show how much of the €2.5 million grant was paid.
What Is Not Known
Questions for the EIC
How much of the grant was paid before the insolvency, whether the project was formally terminated, what happened to the technology, and what the EU will recover are not public.
Why Europe Should Care
The EIC committed €2.5 million to a small German medtech with a promising imaging technique. The company failed before the project could produce clinical results, and the EU's public record still shows the project as running, with a single first-year report.
What the project promised
Real-time multispectral imaging for more accurate detection of cancer in endoscopy.
What the record shows
A system design, no clinical results, insolvency in March 2024 and no final report.
The Verdict
A project that ended in court
Thericon did not survive to complete its EIC project. Whatever the grant paid for, the public cannot see it: the EU's record stops after the first year and the company is in insolvency proceedings.
Thericon, its insolvency administrator and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.
