Detect

Recently, Nature’s Elie Dolgin highlighted Detect in a story about rapid molecular tests, the advancements made during the Covid pandemic, and the continuing efforts to move testing closer to the patient. Detect was one of the first companies to develop and launch a rapid molecular Covid test, just in time for the Omicron surge of 2021-22. The pandemic brought about an unprecedented wave of new technology, capital, and regulatory advancements into the diagnostics space as everyone was racing to try to help get things back to normal. With the emergency phase of the pandemic behind us, I’m proud that Detect is one of a few companies continuing to advance rapid molecular testing. We have spent the last two years developing a whole new testing platform, incorporating critical lessons we learned from our first product. ** Sample prep unlocks the post-Covid pandemic testing menu. Like many rapid molecular tests, our first test implemented a “direct amplification” approach, skipping sample prep. While that worked for Covid testing, a more rigorous approach is needed to build a platform supporting a broad test menu spanning many types of pathogens and clinical samples. Over the last few years, we’ve built a novel sample prep module into our new platform that performs gold-standard nucleic acid purification in less than five minutes, matching the purity and recovery you get from commercial kits –and all happening under the hood with no user interaction. ** Novel chemistry needed for decentralized testing. Racing against the pandemic, we had no choice but to use existing reagents from external suppliers in our first product. Over the past few years, we’ve developed our own novel nucleic acid amplification chemistry that runs in 5-10 minutes with the same sensitivity and specificity as PCR. Our AI-powered primer design software turns the esoteric art of isothermal amplification assay design from alchemy into a science. Our team of protein scientists and organic chemists have designed novel enzymes, dyes, and small molecules that establish new limits on the sensitivity, specificity, speed of molecular testing. Owning the production of our reagents is critical for meeting the exacting low cost requirements needed to make the economics of this new testing paradigm work. ** It takes a village to make a new medical technology successful. Outside of the context of a pandemic, questions of clinical and economic utility are more subtle. Our new platform will give test results within the time window of a single clinical visit, minimizing loss-to-follow-up, improving antibiotics stewardship, improving outcomes, and minimizing downstream costs. We’ve listened carefully to patients, providers, and payors and have designed every aspect of our platform to meet the needs of the whole ecosystem. I look forward to sharing more about our new platform soon!

I’m at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference this week, along with my Detect co-founders Eric Kauderer-Abrams and Owen Kaye-Kauderer, meeting with partners and investors from across the healthcare industry. Many have asked what Detect has been up to since commercializing one of the first FDA-authorized rapid molecular Covid-19 home tests in 2021. The answer is simple: we are applying the breakthrough technology we developed to assist in the pandemic to a whole new range of infectious diseases and health issues. We are in late-stage development of our second-generation molecular diagnostics platform for the point of care and home, and our initial focus will be on sexual health and respiratory applications. This will be an even faster and cheaper version of our original Detect molecular test. Over the past 4 years, we’ve been honored to have support from a number of private investors and public partners, and this morning we announced the addition of two additional in vitro diagnostics industry veterans to our Board, Stefan Willemsen and Jeff Hawkins. We are thrilled to bring their combined expertise to our team as we move into this next chapter at Detect. It’s clear that rapid testing is here to stay – whether it’s in the doctor’s office, urgent care, or your home. No one wants to wait unnecessarily for test results. But accuracy of these tests are key, and our molecular technology that brings the laboratory into a small device and produces gold-standard results in less than 15 minutes is truly the way of the future. P.S. Stefan Willemsen most recently served as President and CEO of bioMérieux for the U.S. and the Americas Region, after having led bioMérieux’s acquisition of BioFire Diagnostics, LLC, the leading highly multiplexed clinical diagnostics platform. Jeff Hawkins is currently President and CEO of next-generation protein sequencing company Quantum-Si and was previously President and CEO of point-of-care diagnostics company Truvian. https://lnkd.in/d3gxQ7fu