NEW YORK – Bosch Healthcare Solutions and Randox Laboratories said on Wednesday that they will invest €150 million ($162 million) into research, development, and distribution of new point-of-care PCR tests for Bosch's Vivalytic platform, starting with a multiplex sepsis test.
Germany-based Bosch and UK-based Randox, which have been collaborating since 2018, said they share a goal of becoming a market leader in point-of-care testing by 2030. They declined to disclose how much each firm will contribute to the partnership.
"With our partner Randox, we want to further expand the test portfolio of our Vivalytic analysis device," Marc Meier, managing director of Bosch Healthcare Solutions, said in a statement. "Our fully automated molecular diagnostic PCR tests provide clarity directly at the site of sample collection, shorten waiting times, and take the strain off the healthcare system."
The firms said they will initially focus on a multiplex sepsis test that will take advantage of Bosch's BioMEMS microelectromechanical and microfluidic technology. It allows to run multiple reactions in parallel within a test cartridge about the size of a smartphone, enabling automated testing of up to 250 genetic characteristics in a single cartridge with results in as little as 15 minutes.
In 2018, the firms unveiled the Vivalytic analyzer as a platform to perform cartridge-based endpoint PCR, quantitative real-time PCR, melt curve analysis, and microarray detection.
With a new rapid sepsis test, Bosch and Randox will step into an already crowded market, with tests being developed or already launched by Inflammatix, Immunexpress, Diasorin, Ad Astra Diagnostics, Siemens Healthineers, Nostics, Cytovale, and others.