Kalorama: IVD Industry Responds to Ebola Outbreak With Point of Care Tests
NEW YORK, Oct. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Affordable and accessible point-of-care (POC) technologies capable of providing early diagnosis of infection are being developed in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, according to Kalorama Information. Unless Ebola control measures are quickly enhanced, the WHO predicts that the number of those infected s could climb exponentially. Effective containment of the Ebola outbreak requires early diagnosis to enable appropriate intervention strategies and ultimately stop transmission of Ebola infection within the population.
The tragic outbreak in Africa points out the importance of POC technologies, which are discussed in detail in Kalorama's The Market and Potential for Molecular Point of Care Diagnostics. Some of the test products that could aid physicians are:
- Automatic, semi-portable nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) platforms similar to those developed for other diseases such as HIV, TB and malaria may potentially be used for Ebola virus detection if adapted to appropriate biosafety requirements. Lucigen's OmniAmp™ RNA & DNA LAMP Kit, for example, may prove well-suited for low-resource molecular detection of pathogens.
- Nanobiosym's iPhone-like "nanodiagnostic" device that can detect infectious diseases like Ebola in less than an hour. Their Gene-RADAR chip, developed primarily through U.S. defense and federal grants, probes DNA molecules at the nanometer scale to achieve faster, better, cheaper readouts of the DNA.
- Corgenix Medical Corporation is building a presence in the detection of emerging pathogens. In July, Corgenix was awarded $2.9 million in grant money by the NIH to continue work on the development of their Ebola test kit. Their rapid diagnostic test requires just a small drop of blood from which a determination of Ebola positive or negative is revealed in 15 minutes or less.
Companies in the POC market will play a great role in ending the Ebola crisis. Kalorama's The Market and Potential for Molecular Point of Care Diagnostics offers a quantitative assessment of the molecular diagnostic market and of the POC testing market, and then looks at this emerging field of molecular diagnostic POC testing. Many companies are developing molecular diagnostic platforms and assays that are designed to for near-patient or POC testing, and the earliest of these systems are starting to reach the market. The initial market focus for most of these companies is on infectious disease testing, where rapid test results generate important actionable information that physicians can use to make treatment decisions.
Molecular diagnostic point-of-care tests represent an important aspect of bringing healthcare to limited resource settings, and some sections of Kalorama's report specifically focus on these activities. The reports provides information regarding non-profit organizations advancing molecular diagnostic technology for limited resource settings such as FIND, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics. FIND is currently partnering with WHO on the Ebola Diagnostics Access Coalition, with Working Groups on Development, Evaluation, and Implementation, to minimize the barriers faced by new technologies identified to thwart the Ebola outbreak.
The healthcare market researcher's report provides profiles of molecular POC companies and products, market estimates for molecular diagnostics and POC diagnostics from 2013-2018, investments and financing agreements in the POC molecular industry, infectious disease diagnostics opportunities, agreements among diagnostic companies, and acquisitions of molecular diagnostic near-patient/POC companies. The report can be found at KI: http://www.kaloramainformation.com/redirect.asp?progid=86775&productid=8028587.
About Kalorama Information -- Kalorama Information, a division of MarketResearch.com, supplies the latest in independent medical market research in diagnostics, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare; as well as a full range of custom research services. We routinely assist the media with healthcare topics. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and our blog.
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SOURCE Kalorama Information
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