Ebola device passes test

A Dunedin-developed device that could be used to fight Ebola and other diseases has passed a key test in the United States.

Successful results from fast-tracked testing on the University of Otago-developed device were presented to high-powered US government representatives at a conference earlier this month.

Tests on the device showed it met US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance for ''emergency use authorisation'' on Ebola.

The brick-sized portable device, which was launched in August following six years of development, allows specialists to test for viruses and bacteria by identifying target DNA sequences, without the need for samples to be taken back to a lab for testing on much larger equipment.

With potential seen for the device to help save lives in the fight against Ebola, testing on it was fast-tracked late last year, with the hope it would be given FDA approval much faster than usual.

Ubiquitome chief executive Paul Pickering, who has partnered with the university's commercialisation arm, Otago Innovation, to sell the device to the world, said the response to the results of that testing were ''universally positive'' at the Chemical and Biological Defence Science and Technology Conference in St Louis, Missouri earlier this month.

Those who attended, who included representatives from various branches of the US armed forces, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA, were also impressed the technology was developed in New Zealand.

The tests showed the device offered sensitivity equivalent to that of larger lab-based machines - meaning it could detect very small amounts of Ebola - and did not generate false positives when other diseases common to West Africa were present.

The successful results were a ''big step forward'' for Ubiquitome and its partners Battelle and IDT when it came to competing for a slice of billions of dollars of funding the US Government had set aside for the fight against Ebola.

The final step remaining before the device could be given FDA approval was a ''mock'' clinical trial, which does not involve live Ebola virus because of the risks involved of handling it.

''We anticipate completing this work and our formal FDA submission before the end of this year.''

Testing on the device, conducted by Battelle in Aberdeen, United States, was completed ''just in time'' for the conference.

vaughan.elder@odt.co.nz

Add a Comment

 

Advertisement