NEW YORK – Cubit Diagnostics announced on Tuesday that it has been awarded $2.6 million by the National Institutes of Health's Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Tech program. The funding will enable the Carlsbad, California-based startup to complete development of an assay to detect COVID-19, influenza A, and influenza B using its low-cost multimodal diagnostics system.
The RADx Tech funding, which was officially awarded on Dec. 2, 2024, allows the company to complete the development of its platform development, prepare its first assay for a clinical study, and reduce instrument and consumables costs to provide "lab-quality results within 15 minutes at the point of care," CubitDx CEO Kunal Sur said in a statement.
CubitDx is developing an integrated immunoassay and molecular diagnostic instrument incorporating ultra-fast PCR, proprietary sample purification, and low-cost microfluidics. The system, which is being developed in part in collaboration with Arete Biosciences, can assess up to eight targets in a single test and is intended for point-of-care use in physicians' offices and pharmacies.
CubitDx was awarded $1.8 million by RADx for COVID/flu test development and platform feasibility in 2023, according to the website.
Evaluations of its COVID-19 assay last year at Emory University — home of RADx's Independent Test Assessment Program (ITAP) — showed it was more sensitive than standard rapid immunoassays and had equivalent sensitivity to high-throughput clinical lab tests, CubitDx said.
CubitDx is developing other tests for infectious diseases and global healthcare, including assays to detect sepsis, sexually transmitted infections, HIV, and human papillomavirus, the firm said.