A Newcastle technology company says it has developed a test that can rapidly diagnose the virus that causes coronavirus.
QuantuMDx – which has developed a hand-held device that can diagnose a range of diseases, predominantly for use in the developing world – has developed a test that can test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes coronavirus.
The test takes nasal or throat samples and can currently only be done in a laboratory, taking about 70 minutes.
But QuantuMDx is hoping to make the test available on its QPOC device so that it can be carried out quickly – in around 15-20 minutes – and at patients’ side.
That would mean it could potentially be used in hospitals and pharmacies, but also in schools, care homes or possibly ports and airports where people enter the country.
QuantuMDx is working with Liverpool-based manufacturing company Biofortuna and will be able to produce two million tests a week, with the ability to scale that up to three million.
The test has been developed with the help of the Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust and medics in London, and QuantuMDx has now applied to the American Food and Drink Administration and for the European CE-IVD mark to be able to use its test.
Jonathan O’Halloran, co-founder and chief executive officer of QuantuMDx said: “It is clear that tackling the COVID-19 pandemic requires the widespread availability of accurate and appropriate diagnostics.
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“It’s a privilege for us at QuantuMDx to have been able to use our expertise in diagnostics to develop a SARS-CoV-2 Detection assay and contribute to the national and international efforts to tackle this disease.
“By securing the supply chain early, we have been able to achieve massive scale for our assay to supply the testing needs of countries around the world.”
Sanjeev Krishna, professor of molecular parasitology and medicine at St George’s, University of London, said: “It’s universally acknowledged that one of the most urgent needs to help us control and hopefully eliminate the COVID-19 pandemic are good diagnostic tests.
“We need a test that can diagnose the disease quickly and accurately, while being available and affordable for all healthcare systems. This test is very much aiming to address those needs so we can control the infection with greater precision.”
QuantuMDx was formed in 2008 and has built a team of more than 100 people in Newcastle working on ways to detect a range of diseases.