Taiwanese biomedical firm Molsentech has launched a computer chip designed for rapidly diagnosing COVID-19. Molsentech says the chip has the accuracy of a PCR test, with the testing time of a lateral flow.
COVID-19 lateral flow tests roll off a factory production line. It’s these, alongside antibody tests and PCRs, that form the backbone of the global diagnostic system.
But they have their drawbacks. Rapid tests are, of course, rapid, but antigen tests sometimes produce false positives and false negatives. Antibody tests only work towards the end of infection. And PCR tests normally take at least an hour and a half to produce results.
A new innovation from biomedical firm Molsentech aims to address all those issues. They call it a “COVID-19 rapid testing chip”, and it’s small, fast and accurate. The whole testing process takes about 25 minutes from start to finish, and the chip catches almost 97% of positive cases. In practice, the only positive cases it misses are ones where the virus is at a barely detectable level.
Molsentech CEO C. J. Chu says the test will normally sell for around US$110. But with a Taiwan government subsidy, the company hopes to give hospitals a discount of at least 40%.
Molsentech worked alongside the National Applied Research Laboratories, Academia Sinica, and the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital to develop the chip.
The device has already got emergency use authorization from Taiwan health authorities, so it’s set to go on sale in February. The next step? Bringing this piece of potentially life-saving kit to the rest of the world.
Staś Butler, RTI News.