Award-winning designer and manufacturer of diagnostic medical devices, Atomo Diagnostics today announced that it has been successful in securing $1.38 million in grant funding from the Australian Government as part of the Australian Tropical Medicine Commercialisation (ATMC) programme to assist in the development and commercialisation of new rapid tests for the detection of dengue and chikungunya viruses.
Half the world's population live in areas at risk of infection from these two viruses, which are leading causes of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics1. Readily transmitted by mosquitoes, there are no vaccines to prevent infection so early detection and treatment is critical to limit the risk of complications and death.
Atomo's Group CEO John Kelly said, "We are extremely grateful to the Australian government for its commitment to global health innovation and continued support of our company. This funding will help us deliver a much needed, easy-to-use solution for the rapid diagnosis of diseases which impact hundreds of millions of people."
This latest funding with support from the Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF) represents another important milestone for this fast-growing company headquartered in Sydney, Australia. This comes on the back of an $8.3 million loan earlier this year from GHIF to support scale-up of the company's production capacity of tests that have significant global health impact.
Adapting its current AtomoRapid technology to integrate two test strips into a single device will allow both antibodies and antigen levels to be detected at the same time from a single blood sample. This novel all-in-one combo test will obsolete current generation test kits which currently require the use of many accessories, and have challenges with complexity, high error rates and misdiagnosis.
1 source: WHO www.who.int
About Atomo Diagnostics: www.atomodiagnostics.com
The company was established to bring a user-centered approach to the design of rapid diagnostic tests. Based in Sydney, Australia, with corporate offices in South Africa and the UK, Atomo is commercialising a range of innovative and easy to use rapid diagnostics tests that deliver clinical and economic value to healthcare systems, professionals and consumers globally. The company is led by an experienced team with a track record of success in the commercialisation of healthcare products that improve clinical performance and address unmet needs.
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