Oceanit and our partners are continuing to build momentum and garner attention on our COVID-19 testing efforts during this global pandemic. The Honolulu Star Advertiser recently spoke with CEO Patrick Sullivan for the latest updates on Oceanit’s ASSURE-19 development. The article was featured on the newspaper’s Monday front page. ASSURE stands for ‘Accelerated Sensor Solution for Urgent Response to Epidemics’ and is specifically developed for COVID-19. You can read more about the ASSURE-19 test here.
Dr. Sullivan spoke to The Star Advertiser’s Mindy Pennybacker about the ASSURE-19 rapid spit test that we believe will help to protect lives and responsibly help to restore the economy. The test is a Lateral Flow Assay (LFA), similar to a common pregnancy test, that uses a custom capture molecule and detector molecule, engineered for purpose by the ASSURE team. The capture and detector molecules are novel and unique, a truly one-of-a-kind approach to COVID-19 respiratory disease detection.
In the Star Advertiser article, Dr. Sullivan discussed being on the verge of clinical testing with The Queen’s Medical Center. Dr. Todd B. Seto, the center’s Director of Academic Affairs & Research, also spoke about how his team will initially test 30 people using both a nasal swab PCR test and ASSURE-19. Our teams will compare results and use the data to initiate an expedited approvals process with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In our forthcoming testing, The Queen’s Medical Center will be pursuing analytic validity for ASSURE: limit of detection, cross-reactivity, inhibition, and stability, in parallel with clinical validation against RT-PCR.
Also on Monday, August 3rd, Dr. Sullivan was invited to join KITV 4’s evening Island News program for a live interview about ASSURE-19’s progress. Dr. Sullivan joined hosts Mika Miyashima and Brenton Awa on the 6:30pm segment to share our progress with KITV’s audience. See the video, below, for the news segment discussing our test, how it works, scale up, and its potential to reopen Hawaii.
