Chembio gets grant to develop simple TB test
MEDFORD, N.Y. Chembio Diagnostics has announced that it has been awarded a $296,000 one-year, Phase I Small Business Innovative Research grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a simple, rapid, accurate, and cost-effective serological test for active tuberculosis that can be utilized in resource-limited settings. Current methods of diagnosis are slow and/or unreliable.
This test will use the Dual Path Platform technology developed by Chembio together with selected antigens from a large panel of novel recombinant antigens identified at the Infectious Disease Research Institute, a biotechnology research organization dedicated to technologies that address diseases in the developing world.
Under the terms of this NIH SBIR grant award, Chembio will receive approximately 2/3 of the grant funds, or approximately $200,000, with the balance payable to IDRI as a subcontractor to Chembio.
The test will be developed for point-of-care or field application, with results produced within 15 minutes of addition of blood sample to the assay. In addition to the visual reading, there will be an option for automated readout of the test result.
The Phase I study goal is to develop a prototypic test and determine the feasibility of proceeding into Phase II work. The feasibility of proceeding to Phase II with the DPP prototype will be established if: 1) the test sensitivity is greater than 80 percent and 2) the test specificity is greater than 95 percent.