St George’s team will help bring binx rapid point of care STI testing to patients
Published: 24 June 2019
A team of scientists at St George’s are supporting the development of a new technology that could revolutionise sexual health treatment times in the UK.
Professor Tariq Sadiq and his team at the university’s Applied Diagnostic Research and Evaluation Unit (ADREU) have announced their support of the binx health io™ platform, with its chlamydia and gonorrhoea combined rapid test. The platform takes just about 30 minutes to give a result comparable to a central lab test, creating a first-of-its-kind ‘test and treat’ care model for these prevalent sexually transmitted infections.
At the beginning of May, the test received CE marking, or certification, for use within Europe. Binx also recently successfully completed a US-based multi-centre study of the platform and has submitted an application to the FDA for 510(k) clearance. The platform is not yet commercially available in the United States.
ADREU have assisted in some important aspects of the validation of this assay at various stages of development, including providing samples to support the development of testing thresholds. Now ADREU will be the first research team to use the device to coordinate service evaluations and clinical studies in sexual health clinics in the UK.
This work has been part of a two-year Innovate UK SBRI grant funded collaboration between binx health (formerly known as Atlas Genetics), St George’s and Aquarius Population Health. One of the grant’s aims is to facilitate adoption of point-of care testing for STIs in the NHS by deploying the platform in a number of UK sexual health clinics and carrying out both clinical validations and service evaluations of the CE-marked dual CT/NG Assay.
A second aim of the grant has been to support binx’s development of a 30-minute rapid test for the io platform that can diagnose multiple sexual infections (Chlamydia Trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoea, Mycoplasma genitalium and Trichomonas vaginalis) from one sample.
Professor Sadiq said: “Our aim has been to support binx’s development and evaluation of a rapid, accurate diagnostic, to enable personalized treatment in sexual health as well as what factors might act as barriers to its uptake. An accurate diagnosis within 30 minutes could allow exactly the right treatment at the first time a patient attends and may even help reduce the spread of infections.”
Jeff Luber, CEO of binx, commented: “We applaud the ADREU team, led by Professor Sadiq, for their commitment to sexual health, scientific and clinical rigour, and to our research and development efforts at binx. With our CE mark now in place, Professor Sadiq and the ADREU team become the first to bring our rapid test-and-treat platform to patients, helping to create a new paradigm in caring for infections of exceedingly high incidence globally.”