TORONTO, Oct. 17,
2022 /CNW/ - SQI Diagnostics Inc. (TSXV: SQD)
(OTCQB: SQIDF), a leader in the science of lung health that
develops and manufactures respiratory health and precision medicine
tests, today announced it has received Health Canada Interim Order
authorization for its Rapid Acute Lung Injury Diagnostic (RALI-Dx™)
IL-6 Severity Triage Test. RALI-Dx™ is the first
interleukin-6 (IL-6) diagnostic test approved in Canada, and its turnaround time of less than
an hour is developed to fill an important and unmet public health
need.
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"COVID continues to strain our health care system, continues to
spawn new variants and continues to be a challenge as new waves
continue to form," said Andrew
Morris, President, and CEO of SQI Diagnostics. "We believe
RALI-Dx™ will be an important tool in the hands of
Emergency Room doctors to help raise survival rates for the most
seriously ill COVID patients while also improving the efficiency
and efficacy of hospital care. We also hope to investigate its
potential use in other severe respiratory health conditions."
The Severity Triage test is intended to play a vital role in
clarifying COVID-19 patient risk. By testing for the presence of
the key bio-marker IL-6, RALI-Dx™ it helps identify
which patients are most at risk of a severe inflammatory response
from cytokine storms, which is associated with the worst patient
outcomes.
"The health care system continues to be plagued by a major gap —
when patients present with respiratory symptoms, how can we
determine which people might progress to critical illness or death
and need hospitalization, and which people can be safely discharged
into at-home monitoring?" said Dr. Shaf
Keshavjee MD, Surgeon-in-Chief at University Health Network
(UHN). "Diagnostic tools like RALI-Dx™ help to address that gap and
give us the insights we need to successfully manage the ongoing
COVID pandemic."
The biomarker utility that is the foundation of the test was
discovered by a team of physicians at UHN, which was then developed
by SQI Diagnostics into a fast turn-around test. Clinical studies
were conducted at three global sites (Canada, US, and Brazil) to determine how well
RALI-Dx™ performs in real world, emergency room
settings. The combined cohort from all countries included 256
subjects. There were no statistical differences between the country
cohorts, which illustrates the universality of the device.
The clinical study was partly funded by the Rapid Research
Funding Opportunity at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
(CIHR). CIHR granted two awards to UHN totalling $1,020,702 to support the study in March 2020. The study was led by UHN and the
team's findings were recently published in the European Respiratory
Journal.
About SQI Diagnostics
SQI Diagnostics is a leader in the science of lung health. The
Company develops and manufactures respiratory health and precision
medicine tests that run on SQI's fully automated systems. The
Company is developing tests to simplify and improve COVID-19
antibody monitoring, Rapid Acute Lung Injury testing, donor organ
transplant informatics, and immunological protein and antibody
testing. SQI Diagnostics is driven to create and market life-saving
testing technologies that help more people in more places live
longer, healthier lives. For more information, please visit
www.sqidiagnostics.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
This press release contains certain words and statements,
which may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of applicable securities laws relating to future events or
future performance and reflect the current expectations and
assumptions of the Company regarding its growth, results of
operations, performance, business prospects and opportunities.
These statements generally can be identified by use of
forward-looking words such as "may", "would", "could", "will",
"should", "expect", "plan", "estimate", "anticipate", "intends",
"believe", "potential", or "continue" or the negative thereof or
similar variations. The Company's actual results and performance
discussed herein could differ materially from those expressed or
implied by such statements. Such statements are qualified in their
entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future
expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially from expectations include, among other things,
general economic and market factors, competition, the effect of the
global pandemic and consequent economic disruption, and the factors
detailed in the Company's ongoing filings with the securities
regulatory authorities, available at www.sedar.com. Although the
forward-looking statements contained herein are based on what we
consider to be reasonable assumptions based on information
currently available to us, there can be no assurance that actual
events, performance or results will be consistent with these
forward looking statements, and our assumptions may prove to be
incorrect. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on
these forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no
obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statements either as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
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SOURCE SQI Diagnostics Inc.