BATM Advanced Communications Limited (LON:BVC; TASE:BVC) is teaming up with an Israeli life sciences firm to develop and market a rapid home testing kit for COVID-19.
Working with a company called Novamed, it is creating a kit that will analyse a sputum sample in minutes that identifies severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, which causes coronavirus disease.
BATM hopes to have a product with regulatory sign-off in the form of CE mark that’s ready to ship in three to four months.
The first tests will go on sale in Israel initially, before being promoted globally.
"We chose to partner with Novamed thanks to their many years of experience in developing excellent at-home diagnostic products,” said BATM chief executive, Dr Zvi Marom.
“We believe that the combination of the capabilities of BATM and Novamed will result in a uniquely effective solution to address the current pandemic as well as other outbreaks in the future."
In the same update, the company said it is starting to ship a medical-grade COVID-19 diagnostics created by its Adaltis subsidiary with delivery to Italy being the immediate focus.
Clinical assessment has “demonstrated the excellent performance”, BATM said providing results in under an hour.