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SINGAPORE – It is possible that more people here will soon be able to get tested for Covid-19 and know their results in less than a minute, simply by breathing into a tube.
Breathonix, a spin-off from the National University of Singapore (NUS), developed a test kit that can accomplish this.
Following a successful trial at the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), the company said on Thursday (October 29) that it is currently in talks with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to implement its breathalyzer tests in trials in public places. in the next years. months.
Dr. Jia Zhunan, CEO of Breathonix, said the firm is also working to expand the NCID trial to include 250 more patients in addition to the current 180.
The president of the company, associate professor Neo Kok Beng, added that they are in talks with a “major player in hospitality” here to implement the tests at events such as conferences after approval by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA ).
The company expects to receive it in the first quarter of next year.
Professor Neo refused to name the player of hospitality. He added that Breathonix has also received some requests from groups abroad for the tests to be implemented there.
For the test, people blow into a disposable mouthpiece that is connected to a breath sampler.
A mass spectrometer analyzes the invisible particles called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in a person’s breath.
A healthy person will have a different VOC signature than someone who is sick, and different diseases produce different signatures.
Results are generated automatically in less than a minute, without the need for the sample to be processed elsewhere.
This makes the breathalyzer test more convenient and faster than current polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab tests, which require an outside laboratory to process samples and take a few days to return results.
Breathonix test results are also generated faster than Rapid Antigen Tests (ART), which take at least 15 minutes.
The breathalyzer test is also non-invasive, in contrast to PCR and ART tests, which require the insertion of swabs into a person’s nostrils and are known to cause discomfort.
Also, unlike a PCR test that requires trained lab technicians to process samples, the Breathonix machine requires only about an hour of training for a layman to operate it, said the company’s chief operating officer and co-founder, the Mr.
“Technically, anyone who knows how to operate a PC can do it,” he added.
In the recent NCID clinical trial, the breathalyzer test also managed to detect asymptomatic patients, although Dr. Jia cautioned that more studies and trials are needed to validate the results.
It has a 93% sensitivity rate, the rate at which positive cases are correctly detected, and a 95% specificity rate, which is the proportion of virus-free people who are correctly identified as such.
In contrast, ARTs that were used in a recent pre-event pilot test here had a sensitivity rate of approximately 82% and a specificity rate of 99%.
The breathalyzer is less sensitive than a PCR test, which is considered here the “gold standard” of Covid-19 detection, but Dr. Jia noted that the breath test is not intended to be diagnostic.
“We are not comparing or competing with the PCR test. The breath test is more of a first-rate screening device,” he explained.
The exact cost of a breathalyzer test here will depend on several factors, including the number of tests performed, but Professor Neo said that if around 5,000 people are tested per month using a machine, each test should cost around US $ 20 ( S $ 27).
Currently, a PCR test here is estimated to cost around $ 200 per person. Mr. Du added that since ARTs are still currently in the validation process here, it is not known how much such tests cost.
Dr. Jia said that there are several measures to prevent cross contamination when using the machine. These include a disposable mouthpiece and disposable tube, a one-way valve, and a filter on top of the mouthpiece so that only gas-based molecules can enter the device.
In addition, all surfaces inside the machine that are in contact with the breath are heated to a high temperature and are self-disinfecting.
Professor Neo added that the machine can run non-stop, 24 hours a day, for up to six months before it needs to be recalibrated. This, combined with the quick and painless test method, makes it ideal for deployment in high traffic locations such as airports.
He said: “If you ask people to stay another two days or even 10 hours at the airport (while waiting for the results), that will not be encouraging … so we have to look at the big picture, instead of saying this is just a test: How do you facilitate the reopening of the economy? “
He added: “We believe that we can contribute to the global economy through rapid, accurate and cost-effective detection.”
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