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Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) will award up to 1 million USD to diagnostics and health tech company Scout to demonstrate proof-of-concept and feasibility ahead of development of a new point-of-care test, STI Scout.
The test will detect and differentiate between Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) and Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct). STI Scout is quick and inexpensive according to CARB-X, with a turnaround time of 30 minutes and costs anticipated to be less than half of other options.
Additionally, STI Scout can use either first void urine or vaginal swabs, and future tests will be able to guide therapy for gonorrhea treatment based on antibiotic susceptibility. STI Scout uses the Scout Hub to run and the Scout Connect mobile app, which provides instructions, tracks results, and eventually will allow patients to connect digitally to a healthcare provider.
Scout is leveraging their patented Loop-de-Loop chemistry, an isothermal technology that was validated for highly accurate SARS-CoV-2 detection with Scout’s system, which as an FDA Emergency Use Authorisation for point-of-care settings and an authorisation for use in over-the-counter (OTC) settings pending.
The CARB-X award will help Scout expand its test menu to offer simple and efficient point-of-care testing at STI clinics and urgent care centres and as a potential future option, an at-home test for STIs.
Gonorrhea is the second most reported bacterial STI. Approximately 82 million people were infected globally in 2020, with the highest prevalence of infection in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Patients with gonorrhea can face serious health effects, including pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic pelvic pain, infertility. Since patients do not always exhibit symptoms, reported cases may only capture a fraction of the true burden, according to CARB-X.
Decentralising testing could benefit patients in low-resource settings, as clinics and urgent care centres could have fast, accurate and affordable tests enabling same-day results which would expedite appropriate treatment. CARB-X says the low-cost design of the consumables and simple-to-use interface could enable Scout’s test to be used globally, expanding access to Ng testing to the lowest levels of the healthcare system including LMICs.
With further development, the Scout system tests also could be used at home, which is especially valuable among patient populations that are testing routinely.
“There is a need for affordable, accurate, and easy-to-use tests that expand access to testing for and proper treatment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to urgent care centres, STI clinics, and the like,” said Erin Duffy, PhD, R&D Chief of CARB-X. “Given the prevalence of gonorrhea globally, and the growing prevalence of drug-resistant gonorrhea, to diagnose quickly and affordably would allow physicians at all levels of the healthcare system to treat rapidly with the most appropriate therapy. The impact of a test like Scout’s could be vast.”
Cam Ball, PhD, Scout CTO and Co-Founder said: “Our goal is to improve access to accurate diagnostics for everyone. Scout’s approach benefits clinicians and patients by providing timely, accurate results which can lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment of patients. Importantly, Scout also could assist healthcare providers in determining which treatments are appropriate for the patient and can assist combating the spread of antibiotic resistance bacteria.”
According to the company, an estimated 1.27 million people died due to drug-resistant bacterial infections in 2019, a death toll that exceeded HIV/AIDS (864,000) and malaria (643,000) in that same year. CARB-X is building a pipeline of products to prevent, diagnose and treat bacterial infections, including those that have become resistant to antibiotics.
