Mbio Diagnostics submits rapid COVID test to Defense Department
BOULDER — MBio Diagnostics Inc., a supplier of infection tests for the U.S. military, has provided a rapid COVID-19 test to the U.S. Department of Defense for research purposes.
In a statement, the Boulder company said the test will be used by the Henry Jackson Foundation for Advancement of Military Medicine to determine the presence of the inflammatory protein interleukin-6. That differs from the majority of COVID-19 tests that check for the presence of the virus’ RNA in a person’s sample.
The protein has been often found in severe bouts of COVID-19 and is thought to be a sign that a patient’s immune system is overreacting to the disease, which in turn can lead to the complications that cause organ failure and death. Early research has shown drugs that slow the binding of interleukin-6 to patient cell receptors can reduce the chance of that overreaction in severely ill patients.
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Mbio received $1.55 million in grants from the Defense Department in mid-April to develop the test. The company previously said it plans to submit clinical data on its broader rapid infection test to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March 2021.
“We are pleased that our prior work in developing host-response diagnostic tests can now be applied in important clinical studies during the COVID-19 crisis,” CEO Chris Myatt said in a statement.
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