French drugmaker Sanofi is joining forces with California, USA-based start-up Luminostics to pursue development of a COVID-19 self-test solution for smartphones, based on the US firm’s consumer diagnostics technology.

Sanofi will contribute its clinical research testing experience toward finding a solution that eliminates the current need for healthcare professional administration or laboratories in being tested for the novel coronavirus.

Subject to relevant regulatory approvals, the French pharma said it plans to leverage its global distribution network to ensure global availability, as part of its ongoing effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic on multiple fronts.

Leveraging Luminostics’ existing technology and protoypes, the two companies expect to start development activities in the coming weeks. In parallel, they hope to sign a final collaboration agreement including a plan for accelerated ramp-up of necessary manufacturing capabilities.

If development activities are successfully conducted, the aim is to have an OTC self-testing solution ready before the end of this year, subject to obtaining required regulatory clearances.

Early on in the crisis, as Sanofi notes, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for rapid, reliable testing as a priority measure to contain the outbreak, but in reality, testing is still not widely available and there is currently no home test.

The partners aim to find a test that can detect the COVID-19 virus with high sensitivity and specificity from respiratory samples. The total time from specimen collection to results being targeted is in the range of 30 minutes or less.

Luminostics’ technology utilizes a consumer smartphone’s optics, controlled by an iOS/Android app paired with an inexpensive adapter, in combination with “glow-in-the-dark” nanochemistry and signal-processing artificial intelligence.

The finished version of the app would instruct a user on how to run the test, capture and process data to display test results – which would be available immediately – and subsequently connect the user with a telehealth service.

“This partnering project could lead to another important milestone in Sanofi’s fight against COVID-19,” the drugmaker said. “The development of a self-testing solution with Luminostics could help provide clarity to an individual – in minutes – on whether or not they are infected,” Alan Main, executive vice president, head of Sanofi Consumer Healthcare, commented.

Rapid, reliable mass testing is one of the key strategies for successful containment of a pandemic outbreak, Sanofi stressed, adding that a rapid self-testing solution would have multiple advantages.

Along with easy access and availability to patients at thousands of points-of-sale including e-commerce, the smartphone test would require no interpersonal contact, thereby lowering the infection risk. Immediate availability of results furthermore would allow fast decision-making, it said.

Luminostics is currently funded by venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and is said to possess multiple scientifically peer-reviewed federal R&D grants or contracts.

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www.sanofi.com