NEW YORK – Australian infectious disease molecular diagnostics developer Genetic Signatures said on Wednesday that it has won a tender for a three-year contract with Public Health Wales to provide molecular detection of enteric pathogens. Under the contract, worth up to $1.8 million (US$1.4 million) per year, Genetic Signatures will provide its EasyScreen enteric real-time PCR testing kits and instruments to seven sites within Wales.
EasyScreen enteric qPCR is a CE-marked flexible syndromic test that can detect more than 20 clinically relevant pathogenic bacteria, protozoan, and viral agents that cause gastroenteritis symptoms, the firm said in a statement.
The assay uses Genetic Signatures' proprietary 3base technology, which employs bisulfite treatment to reduce complexity between subtypes or strains without compromising specificity.
Genetic Signatures recently joined the BioHub Birmingham as the launchpad for a planned further expansion into Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
"Traction is building for non-SARS-CoV-2-related business in Europe after considerable effort by the sales teams, despite travel and other restrictions," said John Melki, the firm's CEO, in a statement. "It validates our strategy of targeting high-throughput hospital and pathology laboratories and government programs to drive revenue and demonstrate the cost savings, speed, and accuracy of our EasyScreen testing platform."
Genetic Signatures continues to develop and commercialize its 3base technology, reporting rapid growth of sales of its respiratory diagnostic kits. It also has a pipeline of other infectious disease molecular tests for global markets such as assays for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, sexually transmitted infections, meningitis, and mosquito-borne viral diseases, including Japanese encephalitis.