Diagnostics co MeMed awarded $4m US Defense Dept grant

Israeli immune based diagnostics company MeMed announced that it has been awarded a $4 million grant by the US Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). The award will support transition of the Tirat Hacarmel-based company’s prototype point-of-care (POC) platform towards a final product, including transfer to manufacturing and implementation of cloud connectivity. The CDMRP grant complements a $9.2 million contract from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency awarded last April to MeMed that is supporting the final stages of prototype development.

MeMed CTO Dr. Kfir Oved said, “This grant will allow us to set up manufacturing processes for our POC platform, ultimately enabling MeMed’s novel blood test that has been clinically validated for differentiating between bacterial and viral infection to reach the patient in a shorter time.”

MeMed recently announced completion of three clinical studies, two of which were double-blind, conducted over the past seven years, which collectively enrolled 2,376 patients. The latest study, PATHFINDER, published in the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, independently confirmed that MeMed’s novel blood test, accurately distinguishes between bacterial and viral infections in children. The test aims to support clinicians in one of the most routine yet challenging clinical dilemmas today – determining whether an infection is bacterial or viral in order to decide whether to treat or not to treat with antibiotics.

MeMed CEO Eran Eden said, “Now that development is approaching completion, we are working to expand the menu of tests that will be available on the POC platform, including novel tests for predicting disease severity and for differentiating between sepsis and SIRS. Fast menu expansion is possible, as our unique platform paves the way to performing a wide range of other multiplex-protein measurements, with laboratory quality, within minutes at the POC – the basis for a panel of tests needed to advance patient care.”

 

Source: GLOBES