Todos Medical Ltd announced that its CLIA/CAP-certified laboratory Provista Diagnostics has completed validation of its PCR-based Wound and Respiratory Pathogen panels.
The Wound Panel (WP) is a 31-pathogen multiplexed PCR panel, including antibiotic resistance, taken from swab samples of a wound or lesion. It is meant to help physicians determine which combinations of drug therapies will result in the best patient outcomes.
The Respiratory Pathogen Panel (RPP) is a 24-pathogen multiplexed PCR panel taken from nasal or saliva samples that will assist physicians in making better treatment decisions for patients presenting with respiratory illnesses.
READ: Todos Medical says Provista Diagnostics to provide PCR-based monkeypox testing for clients in New Jersey
Both tests can be run on Provista’s Tecan and 3D Med liquid handling automation systems, and the lab can currently perform as many as 25,000 PCR tests per day.
That’s only going to get higher, the company said. With nine liquid handling systems currently onsite at Provista from former Todos PCR testing lab clients, the company expects Provista to soon be able to run up to 50,000 PCR tests per day.
Additionally, Todos said that validation of its monkeypox lesion and saliva-based assays is on track to be completed in the second half of August. The company plans to wait until the MonkeyPox validation before commercial launching its WP and RPP tests, as it intends to include monkeypox testing on those samples.
Because monkeypox is spread primarily through skin-to-skin contact, contact with open wounds (lesions) and respiratory droplets/aerosols, Todos said that both WP and RPP assays will have important clinical value for differential diagnosis.
Lesion-based testing is the current standard of care according to CDC guidelines, but prospective Todos clients have expressed interest in saliva-based sample collection as a means of improving the safety of frontline healthcare workers, the company said.
To that point, Flow Health, which is conducting monkeypox testing in Los Angeles, has reported successfully assisting in the diagnosis of asymptomatic monkeypox patients using saliva samples.
“It has become clear to us that waiting an additional couple of weeks for the monkeypox validations to be complete in order to move forward with the previously planned commercial launch of our wound and respiratory panels makes a lot of sense given that, just in the last couple of days, we have started to get a number of unsolicited healthcare practices enrolling as ordering physicians for Provista lab services after reading about our plans for saliva-based MonkeyPox testing,” CEO Gerald Commissiong said in a statement.
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