SAN DIEGO, Sept. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aegea
Biotechnologies, Inc. (www.aegeabiotech.com, "Aegea"), a
biotechnology company focusing on the development and
commercialization of next generation nucleic acid and clinical
diagnostic technologies, announces that it has been selected as a
semi-finalist in the prestigious XPRIZE competition for rapid COVID
testing.
XPRIZE is renowned for its worldwide competitions to solve
humanity's most important challenges. The $5
million, XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing competition was launched
this summer to accelerate the development of high-quality COVID-19
testing that is affordable, easy to use, and that has a
fast-turnaround time. These improved COVID-19 tests would
enable more frequent testing. A goal of the XPRIZE Rapid
COVID Testing competition is to increase the scale of COVID-19
testing capabilities by a hundredfold over our current standard, in
order to more safely return to everyday activities.
Approximately 700 teams spanning six continents registered for the
XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing competition.
Aegea advanced to the XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing Semi-Finals
after sharing results of a new, highly sensitive, quantitative
PCR-based assay for detecting SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 virus) that
Aegea designed and is developing and validating clinically in
collaboration with Biocept, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOC). The COVID-19
PCR assay utilizes Switch-Blocker technology, which is patent
protected in the United States and
in 10 major international territories and is jointly owned by Aegea
and Biocept. Under an associated cross-license agreement, Aegea has
exclusive rights in the field of infectious disease, and Biocept
has certain rights within the field of clinical oncology, where
Biocept has used the technology to identify and report rare cancer
associated mutations in more than 20,000 cancer patients to aid
medical treatment decisions.
In addition to high sensitivity and specificity, affordability
and fast turnaround time, Aegea's test is designed to provide
additional information on specific strain types of
SARS-CoV-2.
"We are pleased to compete for the XPRIZE and to put our
inventions and ideas towards solving an urgent global health
need. Aegea's new COVID-19 test utilizes the single
nucleotide discrimination capacities of the patented Switch-Blocker
technology to differentiate itself from other COVID-19 PCR assays,"
said Lyle J. Arnold, Ph.D., Founder
& CEO of Aegea. "Our assay is designed to detect low copy
numbers of viral RNA, therefore it could potentially detect the
viral load at lower levels than other PCR-based assays. This
could be enormously helpful in reducing the infection rate, because
it has been reported that asymptomatic patients are able to infect
others. At the same time, due to its high sensitivity, our
assay should allow multiple patient samples to be pooled into a
single assay, to greatly speed up the number of patients tested.
Additionally, our COVID-19 PCR assay is designed with the ability
to identify high-risk and low-risk strains of SARS-CoV-2, which
could significantly aid medical decision-making, for identifying
patients most in need of hospitalization. It also distinguishes
SARS-CoV-2, which is associated with COVID-19, from other common
forms of the SARS virus."
Aegea's Chief Business Officer, Stella
M. Sung, Ph.D., adds, "In addition to applying proprietary
science, Aegea has established strategic collaborations that will
enable us to quickly scale and commercialize our COVID-19 PCR test.
Biocept, has a CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited high-complexity
molecular lab, and has the ability to run our high throughput,
multiplexed assays. Biocept also has a right of first negotiation
for use of the assay in its clinical laboratory. Separately,
Tauriga Sciences (OTC/QB: TAUG) has extensive relationships with
manufacturers and distributors to help with supply chain issues and
commercial opportunities. Being a semi-finalist for the XPRIZE will
further accelerate Aegea's development and commercialization
timelines. Our immediate goal is to get a fast, accurate,
affordable, accessible, information-rich test to the market.
Our long-term purpose is to equip our global community with a
powerful tool for managing pandemics and for saving lives."
About Aegea Biotechnologies
Aegea Biotechnologies, Inc. located in San Diego, California, is a biotechnology
company focusing on the development and commercialization of next
generation nucleic acid technologies. A primary focus for the
company is nucleic acid technology innovations that embrace
molecular diagnostic assays, qPCR technologies, sequencing methods
including both Sanger and NGS, and
rapid point-of-care COVID-19 testing. Aegea has been granted
11 US patents, and 34 foreign equivalents world-wide. Aegea has
complementary collaborations with Biocept (Nasdaq: BIOC) and
Tauriga Sciences (OTC/QB: TAUG) for developing and commercializing
its COVID-19 tests. www.aegeabiotech.com
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SOURCE Aegea Biotechnologies, Inc.