“Australia has limited access to testing facilities on live virus for development purposes”

Australia based biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing organization Luina Bio has recently partnered with XING Technologies in Brisbane to co-develop and manufacture a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) diagnostic kit. The COVID-19 detection technology is based on a temperature-stable molecule utilizing Xing patented technology. With a total investment of A$ 12 million so far for the development of this product, Luina Bio is gearing up efforts to fight this pandemic. Les Tillack, Chief Executive Officer, Luina Bio recently spoke to BioSpectrum Asia on how the startup is driving various initiatives against COVID-19. Edited excerpts;

- Dr Manbeena Chawla

Les Tillack, Chief Executive Officer, Luina Bio, Australia

What are the key highlights of the kit being developed with XING Technologies?

The new diagnostic kit is an antigen test. This new test directly measures the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus proteins. A positive antigen test is considered very accurate and can be manufactured cheaper as a lowcost point-of-care diagnostic on lateral flow device. This test does not measure the antibody response. Antibody or serology tests do not pick up infectious patients, as it takes 7 to 14 days for an antibody response against the virus. This test also does not impact the traditional antibody supply chain and is rapidly scalable to distribution.

By when would this test be available in the market? Would it be economical?