With the COVID-19 global pandemic continuing to accelerate around the world and countries battling the second wave of infections ahead of the winter season, companies are stepping up to the challenge of findings solutions to get us all out of this dreaded situation.
Today, we saw two COVID related announcements that hopefully will bring society one step closer to a post pandemic world.
Shares of Avalon GloboCare Corp. (NASDAQ:AVCO) and Adial Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADIL) are both perking on news of the formation of a strategic collaboration for global distribution of the Assure/Fastep® COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test device and the Assure/EcoStep® COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test device, point-of-care (POC) COVID-19 antibody tests.
The FaStep COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test Device is the first serology (antibody) POC test for COVID-19 using fingerstick blood samples approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the FaStep COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test Device and the EcoStep COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test Device.
Under the agreement, Adial has granted Avalon non-exclusive, sub-distribution rights worldwide for the FaStep COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test Device and the Assure/EcoStep COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test Device, POC COVID-19 antibody tests.
As a result of the FDA’s EUA, fingerstick blood samples can now be utilized with the FaStep COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test Device for the test in POC settings, including doctors’ offices, hospitals, urgent care centers, emergency rooms, or other locations where there is a licensed healthcare professional. The FaStep COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test Devices are lateral flow assay, 10-minute, 'instant,' POC test devices for the qualitative detection of lgG and lgM antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 virus in fingerstick whole blood, venous whole blood, serum, and plasma.
"We believe there is significant market potential for these differentiated test kits, as these tests are able to detect IgG antibodies at a 98.6% accuracy and IgM antibodies at a 92.9% accuracy and provide results within 10-minutes," said David Jin, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Avalon.
Shares of AVCO are up 1.15% to $1.1834 while shares of ADIL are seeing a pop of 11.11% to $1.90 on the back of this announcement in mid-afternoon trading.
Meanwhile, shares of FluroTech Ltd. (TSX-Venture:TEST) (OTCQB:FLURF) are also on the move higher upon them announcing that FluroTest LLC, a company in which the Company has an equity interest, has filed patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office with respect to certain aspects of its proprietary test method and "Pandemic Defense Platform."
FluroTest’s patent pending Platform will be offered both on a turnkey basis to third parties seeking to operate their own testing solution as well as on a "testing as a service" offering to be operated by FluroTest, serving communities seeking a total solution for surge-scale, high-volume testing services necessary to safely open their environments at scale. The Platform will be available for deployment in Latin America immediately, and will be available for deployment in the United States, Canada and Europe, pending regulatory approval.
FluroTest anticipates that a single platform installation could potentially serve over 3,000 test takers per hour with digitally verifiable results transmitted to a secure, managed, HIPAA compliant cloud environment and be available to the test taker’s mobile device within approximately five minutes. The platform is intended to make it possible to test up to 100% of a specific community population every four to seven days at a low cost to the test taker and with a high value to the communities served by the platform.
Readers are cautioned that, although FluroTest has achieved proof of concept prototype, the testing method and device are still in the early stages of research and development and accordingly FluroTest is not currently making any express or implied claims that the technology can, or will be able to, accurately detect the COVID-19 virus. The Platform is currently pending FDA approval. In addition, FluroTest requires additional capital in the near-term to further the development and deployment of its testing device and will be seeking equity investors and is exploring strategic partnerships in connection with the same.
Despite the warnings, the company’s shareholders are applauding the announcement by sending Canadian listed shares higher by 6.82% in mid-afternoon trading to $0.235.
