In the wake of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) emergency approval last month of BioFire Defense’s PCR technology-based FilmArray system to diagnose Ebola in U.S. military labs and hospitals, other companies are developing diagnostics for use in the U.S or abroad.
- Corgenix Medical Corp., working with Tulane University and the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Consortium, is working on a portable Ebola test kit, using lateral-flow technology, which is designed to deliver a result from a drop of blood within approximately ten minutes. The device is being tested in West Africa, but not enough data has been collected yet for the company to seek approval from the FDA, the World Health Organization (WHO), or the national health ministries of the relevant African nations.
- Chembio Diagnostics Systems, Inc., and Integrated BioTherapeutics, Inc., have joined forces to produce a point-of-care Ebola test. Reagents developed by Integrated BioTherapeutics will be used for the assay, which the companies hope to begin testing in Africa within months.
- Genalyte is developing a diagnostic for Ebola that uses a silicon chip to test a drop of blood and deliver results within about ten minutes. It could be used for triage, screening of international travelers, or monitoring of quarantined individuals.
- OraSure Technologies is exploring the possibility of a rapid oral test for Ebola.
An article recently published in The Wall Street Journalsummarizes the increasing Ebola-related activity within the diagnostics industry. Read the article.
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