A point-of-care test for chlamydia (CT) and gonorrhoea (GN) can give results in 30 minutes, the makers of the platform stated with data to back at the STI and HIV 2023 World Congress, held in July in Chicago, US.
Medtech diagnostics company binx health, which publicly made the announcement on 14 August, says data demonstrates its binx io CT/NG test could fit seamlessly into a normal patient visit. The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) waived molecular test detects the two sexually transmitted infections (STI) in male urine and female vaginal swabs.
The study, led by Dr Lea Widdice, an associate professor of adolescent and transition medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, was a head-to-head comparison between the company’s product and a standard of care laboratory-based test.
The results showed that, despite the hands-on-time needed to conduct both tests being roughly the same, binx health’s platform provided results in 30 minutes compared to the 15 hours it took for the analysis in the lab. The company has already proved the performance of its point-of-care test is on par with a laboratory equivalent – data from which was published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
“We are pleased to have had the opportunity to collaborate with such prominent institutions as Cincinnati Children’s and Johns Hopkins,” said Jeffrey Luber, binx health’ s CEO.
“The data further support that the binx io provided test results reasonable for a single patient-visit compared to 16 hours for the laboratory-based results. This time-to-result is extremely important for providing clinically actionable information and improving the quality of a patient’s care.”
Point-of-care tests are becomingly increasingly relied upon as a screening method amidst rising rates in STIs. In the UK, there was a 23.8% increase in STI diagnoses from 2021 to 2022. Linear Diagnostics, a spin-out from Birmingham University in the UK, is also developing a gonorrhoea and chlamydia test using throat and rectal swabs. In June this year, it received funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to accelerate roll out of its test that it says can give results in 20 minutes.
