The National Institute of Health (NIH) has awarded a phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to Daktari Diagnostics for development of a point-of-care hepatitis C diagnostic, following onto the phase I grant awarded in June 2014 as part of the NIH SBIR Fast Track programme.

The phase II grant, for $1.2 million, funds efforts in antibody science and microfluidics engineering to make the hepatitis C virus (HCV) viral load test fast and portable, enabling it to impact care in remote areas.

Since the award of the phase I grant, the programme has focused on lowering the limit of detection of the Daktari HCV test. "We are thrilled with the progress that the science team has made," said Marta Fernandez-Suarez, Ph.D., Scientific Director for Daktari. "We are gearing up to enter the next phase of the product development program to move the assay into its microfluidic cartridge format."

Hepatitis C has emerged as a major global pandemic, affecting at least 175 million people worldwide. New treatments coming to the market have increased the feasibility of curing people infected with HCV and have spurred discussion of global HCV eradication in the future. A rapid molecular screening test would support a “test and treat” hepatitis C programme, as the overwhelming majority of people do not know that they have the disease. Daktari’s point-of-care platform and connectivity technology is designed to enable molecular HCV screening and treatment monitoring everywhere it is needed.

Daktari Diagnostics, Inc. is a venture-backed company based in Cambridge, USA. Daktari’s mission is to address the world’s biggest health problems through the commercialization of portable diagnostic products that can be deployed anywhere in the world.