Up to $54 Million Awarded to Develop Point-of-Care and At-Home Use Diagnostics

Aptitude Medical Systems today announced that it had received an award of up to $53.7 million from the U.S. government. The funding supports the development of over-the-counter molecular diagnostics capable of delivering lab-quality results in 15-30 minutes while approaching the cost of antigen tests.

About $19.6 million in funding is targeted to develop and validate at-home COVID and COVID/Flu tests.

And up to $34.1 million was allocated for options to develop additional multiplex tests for other infectious disease threats.

Aptitude aims to make molecular tests as accessible as antigen tests according to JP Wang, Ph.D., Aptitude CSO and co-founder, in a press release on April 20, 2023. "The value of that upgrade is clear – a PCR-quality molecular test means that you can detect infection earlier to avoid spreading to your family, friends, and coworkers."

This work is funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under contract number 75A50123C00013.