Aptitude Gets $54 million Partnership With BARDA To Develop Diagnostics For Point-Of-Care And At-Home Use

Aptitude Medical Systems (Aptitude) announced a $53.7 million award from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which is part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response within the US Department of Health and Human Services. The funds will go towards the development of over-the-counter molecular diagnostics that can provide lab-quality results in 15-30 minutes while costing less than antigen tests.

The financing will leverage Aptitude's Metrix testing platform developments, with $19.6 million committed to create and validate at-home Covid and Covid/Flu tests and up to $34.1 million available for possibilities to develop other multiplex tests for other infectious disease concerns. This BARDA grant will help with the development of these products by obtaining FDA 510(k) approval. The FDA granted Emergency Use Authorization to the Metrix Covid-19 Test, the first product on the Metrix platform. The Metrix Covid/Flu Test and software to link patients, providers, payers, and public health will be closely studied. Aptitude aims to make molecular tests as accessible as antigen tests according to JP Wang, PhD, Aptitude CSO and co-founder.

“The value of that upgrade is clear – a PCR-quality molecular test means that you can detect an infection earlier to avoid spreading to your family, friends, and coworkers. Antiviral treatments are significantly more effective if given at the start of an infection –not mid-infection. So, detecting sooner means you can recover sooner because the treatments actually work better. Traditional healthcare is too slow to deliver this value to most people. Metrix fixes that.” Dr. Wang continues, “Metrix disrupts point-of-care testing by eliminating reliance on a bulky, expensive instrument and delivers a low-cost consumable simultaneously.

This unlocks molecular testing in more settings - pharmacies, physician offices, and homes. A patient can interreact with their health care provider either physically or virtually, get powerful tests results on the spot, and have their prescriptions waiting for them in a seamless experience.” "Accessible testing in the home is one of the most important advances in diagnostics for both public health, to reduce transmission, and to improve outcomes through earlier detection and initiation of treatment," said Dr. Michael Mina, MD, PhD, CSO of eMed and previously professor at Harvard School of Public Health & Medical School.

Metrix is one example of this, bringing the power of an advanced laboratory into the home in the size of a cell phone, using either a swab or saliva, and with disposable test components that are minimalist, scalable, and low cost, and will usher in a new era in which the home molecular diagnostic industry competes with antigen tests on price and scale while maintaining the quality we might expect from a laboratory." Aptitude’s platform extends well beyond respiratory. Metrix can detect diseases in multiple sample types (swabs, saliva, blood, and urine) and offers high multiplex capacity to support syndromic panels which existing point-of-care systems can’t do.

"We are delighted that BARDA has chosen Aptitude as a partner. "We expect to bring these best-in-class products to market to address the ongoing need for diagnostics for COVID and other disease threats," said Aptitude CEO and co-founder Scott Ferguson, PhD. "More broadly, we are excited to collaborate to drive a new generation of healthcare in which individuals, doctors, and pharmacies can bypass the lab to obtain timely diagnostic information in order to limit spread, prescribe treatments, and improve health outcomes." Aptitude is clearly capable of doing so by getting both performance and economics correct." The Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under contract number 75A50123C00013, is funding this work in whole or in part. Aptitude is a cutting-edge deep-tech healthcare firm that is revolutionising the detection and treatment of infectious diseases. Aptitude's objective is to democratise diagnostics. The company was founded by world-class pioneers in nucleic acid science and integrated molecular diagnostics engineering. It accomplishes this by reducing traditionally complicated laboratory systems to the size of a palm-sized molecular diagnostic instrument.