- ResApp Health (RAP) sees positive results from its smartphone-based COVID-19 screening test
- The company found its smartphone test detected COVID-19 in 92 per cent of people with the virus
- ResApp will now engage with regulators on the requirements for approvals and look to partner with a global health or technology company to speed up commercialisation
- ResApp is up 48.4 per cent on the market this morning and trading at 9.2 cents per share
ResApp Health (RAP) has seen positive results from its smartphone-based COVID-19 screening test.
The company’s product is being tested to see if it can detect COVID-19 through a cough audio base.
Results from a clinical trial of 741 patients (with 446 COVID-19 positive) was found to correctly detect COVID-19 in 92 per cent of the people with the virus.
ResApp’s algorithm achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.93 using cough audio and patient-reported symptoms across the trial.
AUC is a standard measure of how well a test distinguishes between two diagnostic groups, where a value of one represents a perfect test. ResApp said that a value greater than 0.9 is considered outstanding.
ResApp will now engage with regulators on the requirements for approvals and look to partner with a global health or technology company to speed up commercialisation.
“We are very excited about these preliminary results for detecting COVID-19 using cough audio recorded on a smartphone,” CEO and Managing Director Tony Keating said.
“These algorithms offer a unique opportunity to provide a rule out screening test for COVID-19 at scale across the world, reducing the distribution challenge, the cost and the environmental impact of rapid antigen and PCR testing.”
ResApp said it will initially target use in settings where frequent COVID-19 testing is requires, such as employee healthcare worker and student screening, travel, sports, entertainment and aged care.
The smartphone test will reduce the number of rapid antigen or PCR tests required, improving availability, reducing costs and reducing environmental impact.
ResApp was up 48.4 per cent on the market this morning and is trading at 9.2 cents per share at 10:37 am AEDT.