Australian biosensors company UBI has announced it has successfully developed a SARS-CoV-2 N-Protein detection test (COVID-19 Test) which will give a PCR equivalent response in terms of accuracy, provide a positive or negative result from a small saliva sample in less than 30 seconds.
UBI is now looking for development and commercialisation partners to fund the scale up of manufacturing to meet global demand and to bring the tests to market.
The COVID-19 Test will use UBI’s proprietary electrochemical strip and device technology. UBI’s test method also has the potential to measure the relative viral load associated with a patient’s infection status and so will be able to inform the patient, practitioner and governments as to the illness profile of the patient (i.e. where the patient is on the normal distribution curve of illness - whether the patient can expect for their viral load to increase or whether they are over the peak and expect to become well in x days).
UBI's claim is based on feasibility work done over the last nine months, hundreds of spiked saliva samples, as well as testing on real world COVID positive and negative patient saliva samples. The UBI test relies on a small sample (3-6uL) of saliva which is placed on the strip by swabbing or licking the test strip. The COVID test is done on UBI's point of care, handheld meter platform.
UBI will shortly have hundreds of test strips produced as well as a working prototype meter which it can demonstrate.
Current rapid antigen and PCR tests are impractical to use in situations where a COVID-19 Test result is needed instantly to make better decisions about safety. This includes when front-line workers and first responders initially engage members of the public, or for high-throughput, broad-based screening at public venues, sports, concerts, airports, within the workplace, and at schools and universities. A COVID-19 Test that could be performed in a few seconds with high-sensitivity and accuracy would represent a fundamentally new capability to improve global public health and safety.
The loss of USA GDP due to COVID-19 is estimated at $16 Trillion because of illness, lockdown, isolation time, lost productivity, supply change shocks, and so on. The loss globally is significantly more.
