Rhinostics will license a novel nasal swab from Procter & Gamble and plans to bring it to the clinical laboratory market for SARS-CoV-2 testing.
The fully injection-molded polypropylene nasal swab was developed through a collaboration with P&G’s Personal Health Care business and its subsidiary iMFLUX, which focuses on mold design and process technology innovation for the plastics injection molding market. The program was intended to relieve bottlenecks in COVID-19 supply chains and address supply shortages, Rhinostics said in a statement released Friday. The swab could also be used for testing for other diseases, such as influenza, it added.
The swabs are intended to reduce handling and processing cycle time and increase lab capacity, and the firms believe the swab is a better material choice for PCR and antigen SARS-CoV-2 tests. Rhinostics intends to register the swab as a Class I Exempt medical device and pursue Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for home sample collection in use with PCR testing.
“Not only does the nasal swab production help to relieve supply chain bottlenecks, the new design and polypropylene materials allows for comfortable collection and sample concentration due to dry shipment and improved release of viral particles,” said Cheri Walker, CEO of Rhinostics.
Earlier this week, Rhinostics announced a partnership with Hamilton Storage to improve decapping and accessioning of patient samples.