Biolidics' 10-minute virus test kit gets official green light in the Philippines

SINGAPORE-BASED cancer-diagnostics company Biolidics said on Wednesday that it has obtained the relevant authorisation for the use of its Covid-19 rapid test kit in the Philippines from its Food and Drug Administration.

Under guidelines issued by the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, all suspected Covid-19 cases should undergo testing for the novel coronavirus.

Its rapid test kit is "one of the few that combines both the IgG and IgM antibody tests for Covid-19", which puts it among two approved types of tests used under these approved guidelines in the Philippines.

The rapid test kit from Biolidics can detect Covid-19 using serum, plasma or whole blood samples in 10 minutes, and has an accuracy of more than 95 per cent. It has received provisional authorisation from Singapore's Health Sciences Authority for use in the city-state.

Currently, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing is used to confirm patients with Covid-19. The swab test usually requires laboratory specialists and dedicated medical testing equipment. It takes three hours to obtain the result but the accuracy is 99 per cent.

Biolidics said its rapid-test kit is generally used for the purpose of point-of-care testing (POCT), which paves the way for diagnostic testing to be done in a wide range of healthcare settings by clinical personnel who are not trained in clinical laboratory procedures. 

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Additionally, the rapid test kit is "simple to use and portable, hence it can be deployed where testing is needed most". 

The Singapore-based medical-technology company said in a previous statement that the kit will allow for more "effective and efficient decentralised screening among suspected patients, which makes it suitable for screening of suspected patients during border entry, or in potential Covid-19 clusters". 

However, Biolidics noted in a  statement that results from the test should not to be used for confirmatory testing or as sole basis for diagnosis. The results will have to be interpreted together with clinical presentation and are to be confirmed with supplementary testing.

Other kits on the market include the VereCoV detection kit by Veredus Labs, a diagnostic test developed by scientists at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), another by Acumen Research Laboratories that can analyse at least 24 patient samples at a time, and a serological test developed by researchers at the Duke-NUS Medical School that can establish links between coronavirus patients.

Shares of Biolidics closed down S$0.005, or 1.85 per cent to S$0.27 on Wednesday.