NEW YORK ─ Point-of-care molecular diagnostic test developer Inflammatix on Thursday announced a contract extension worth $12.1 million from the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
The funding is part of a BARDA contract awarded in 2019 worth up to $72 million if all options are exercised.
The Burlingame, California-based developer said it will use the new funding for continued development of its ViraBac EZ test and and for clinical studies to support an application to the US Food and Drug Administration for clearance of the test, which reads gene expression patterns in the immune system to identify whether a suspected infection is bacterial or viral.
The funding also supports development of a sample-to-answer, point-of-care system on which ViraBac EZ is run. The system, called Myrna, which was previously called HostDx, is designed to read mRNA and analyze the results using a machine learning algorithm to produce answers in less than 30 minutes, Inflammatix said.
ViraBac EZ is intended to help physicians quickly and accurately determine whether to prescribe antibiotics in ambulatory settings. The test will use a capillary blood sample, which is ideal for use in primary care, urgent care, and other outpatient clinical settings, Inflammatix noted.
The test has the "potential to play a large role in addressing antibiotic resistance and ensuring the right medicine gets to the right patients," Tim Sweeney, cofounder and CEO of Inflammatix, said in a statement.
In October 2020, Inflammatix announced BARDA had awarded it an additional $7.4 million in funding as part of the overall $72 million contract. It had obtained $6 million in 2019 when the contract was announced.
Further, in March this year, the firm said it had raised $102 million in Series D financing to continue the development of its immune-response tests.