EEN Offer - COVID-19: Portable medical device for the fast detection of infectious diseases
A Greek start-up company is active in the field of medical instruments. The company offers an inexpensive molecular diagnostic medical device for the detection of various infectious diseases such as influenza, COVID-19 and HIV. The device is also able for mutation testing of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Trained professionals should use the device.
The technology of the device is based on a rapid, single-step isothermal DNA amplification reaction known as LAMP (Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification). The specific molecular technology is simpler than the standard 3-temperature amplification technique PCR and more reliable than other isothermal techniques such as RPA (Recombinase Polymerase Amplification). It must be noted that astronauts for space applications have recently used the specific technology.
The device has been used to conduct hundreds of tests so far using real patients’ samples from the Greek COVID19 national reference center. The device scored sensitivity of 97.4%. The device is certified with ISO13485 and it is under approval from IVDD CE (In vitro diagnostic medical devices CE).
The Greek company is already producing the specific product. The company is looking for collaborators active in the field of medical instruments or end users such hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers, airports, touristic facilities and others for commercial agreement with technical assistance. The partners sought will use the medical device for mass testing.The company is primerily interested in offering its product for the detection of COVID-19 for long term collaboration with recipients that will become able to use it in order to conduct more tests, after the proper certification.
Advantages and Innovations:
The device bears a series of innovations and advantages:
- It can manage 1 to 10 samples simultaneously with extremely high precision
- The time required per run is 15-30 minutes
- It uses a tablet to convert the, so far eye-based detection, to a digital signal interpretation
- It has sensitivity, reliability and speed similar to lab-based diagnostics devices, at a much lower cost than other real-time portable devices
- The product offered provides for the first time, real-time quantitative information from a colormetric LAMP reaction, which is considered until now an end-point method.
Type and Role of Partner Sought:
The company is looking for specialized partners in need of the offered testing device. The expected partners could either be active in the field of medical instruments, with access to hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers and other medical structures or end users such as airports, large touristic facilities etc. In all cases, the collaboration sought is commercial agreement with technical assistance. The company is interested in offering its product, with technical assistance for the detection of COVID-19. In the long term the recipients will become able to use it effectively to conduct more tests. The Greek company will provide the device and the necessary instructions and training to use it by professionals.
