Press Release: ArcDia Ltd reports a breakthrough in the development of an automated coronavirus point-of-care test
Turku Finland, April 27, 2020 – the Finnish medical device manufacturer ArcDia International Ltd reports significant progress in the development of automated COVID-19 point-of-care test for mariPOC® platform.
mariPOC® is the market leader in automated testing of respiratory tract infections in Finland. Because of its ease of use and short time to results, mariPOC® is ideal for decentralized rapid testing of acute infections in primary care and emergency clinics.
ArcDia has achieved a breakthrough in its test development for COVID-19 disease. “We have shown, in collaboration with Finnish national health authorities, that our test identifies the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 efficiently and accurately in patient samples”, says Dr. Janne Koskinen, Head of R&D at ArcDia. “We have completed the product development project in record time. We can launch a fast and accurate mariPOC® test which is affordable and available for rapid and decentralized testing”, Koskinen continues.
“Several infectious diseases circulate simultaneously with the new coronavirus, including influenza and RS viruses, with symptoms resembling coronavirus. In recent weeks, testing in healthcare has been considerably less active than in previous years”, says Jenna Mäkilä, Product Manager at ArcDia. “This has led to many influenza patients being left without proper diagnosis and effective treatment due to a lack of active access to health care“, she continues. Effective control of pandemic requires more extensive testing, both in terms of numbers and coverage of other diseases.
The new coronavirus test will be included in ArcDia’s existing Respi test panel, which identifies 11 common pathogens. This will also enable a diagnosis and appropriate treatment for patients with a viral or bacterial disease other than COVID-19. In addition, a product targeting just COVID-19 will be available to allow testing of large populations.
”A single bench-top analyser can automatically analyse 300 COVID-19 samples a day. This capacity is high enough for most outpatient and emergency care units”, says Vesa Kemppainen, ArcDia’s CEO. “Our customers in Finland have the capacity for 15,000 tests per day, enough for testing everyone in the country with symptoms of respiratory tract infection”, Kemppainen states.
mariPOC® tests are affordable compared to PCR tests and could be performed for much larger number of patients. The test results are also automatically collected in ArcDia’s mariCloudTM service, providing a more comprehensive and real-time epidemiological picture for the use of authorities and health care professionals. Such data will allow optimization of quarantine measures.
Rapid mariPOC® tests are based on the direct detection of infectious pathogen proteins from a swab sample. The principle is ideal for diagnosing the acute phase of the disease and assessing patient infectivity. Rapid dipstick tests previously on the market are based on measuring antibodies in a blood sample and do not work until two weeks after infection. Antibody tests are not suitable for detection of the acute phase of the disease, but they can be used for determining whether a patient has had the disease in the past. PCR gene testing is slow and tests are not available to test large numbers of patients in primary care. In addition, PCR tests may give a positive result even if the patient’s disease is not COVID-19 or the patient is no longer infectious.
mariPOC®
mariPOC® is a fully automated test system designed for rapid detection of acute infectious diseases. mariPOC® detects the most common causes of respiratory, pharyngeal and gastrointestinal infections. Test results are typically reported already during the doctor’s visit. mariPOC® is the market leader in Finland for automated testing and surveillance of respiratory infections. mariPOC® is known for its ease of use, high accuracy and reliability.
ArcDia International Oy Ltd
ArcDia International Oy Ltd develops, manufactures and markets mariPOC® worldwide. The company in Turku, Finland, was founded in 2008 and employs 29 professionals. mariPOC® products enable central laboratory level quality, performance and pathogen coverage for primary health and emergency care units. ArcDia aims to expand the mariPOC® product line to cover all common infections and antimicrobial resistance markers.
Further information:
Vesa Kemppainen, CEO
ArcDia International Oy Ltd
Email: vesa.kemppainen[at]arcdia.com
Phone: +358 40 522 7906