Mologic has initiated early validation of COVID-19 point-of-need diagnostic tests with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and St George’s Hospital, London. The availability of fast, reliable diagnostics for COVID-19 has been identified as one of the critical opportunities to support the control of the pandemic and ‘flatten the curve’ of cases worldwide.
The accelerated development of the test has been made possible by funding from UK Aid, as part of the £46 million the UK government has announced so far for international coronavirus (COVID-19) prevention and research.
Mologic’s early prototypes of antibody tests have made it possible to begin a process of optimisation. Leading laboratories on each continent will independently evaluate these different prototypes to assess their performance.
While the assessment and optimisation will be expedited, it is vital that any prototype device for COVID-19 is subject to rigorous validation before it is made available for use in the global pandemic response.