NEW YORK – Bluejay Diagnostics announced Tuesday it has inked an agreement with Toray Industries to develop a point-of-care test to assess the progression of COVID-19.
The minimally invasive Symphony IL-6 test quantitates levels of the interleukin-6 biomarker from whole blood samples without pretreatment of patients who have progressing COVID-19 symptoms and have a high risk of intubation with a mechanical ventilator. The test runs on Toray's platform combining microfluidics and nanotechnology for point-of-care tests in liquid biopsies, Bluejay said in a statement.
Tokyo-based Toray will exclusively license its technology to Bluejay who will perform clinical trials and regulatory applications globally outside of Japan, including submitting to the US Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Authorization.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
IL-6 is released early during a severe infection and can be used to help physicians determine which patients will become seriously ill and risk stratify those patients for treatment. Roche and Beckman Coulter currently have EUAs for IL-6 tests.