Taiwanese-Danish firm BluSense Diagnostics has developed a device to diagnose COVID-19 with 90 percent certainty within 12 minutes using one drop of blood, and the EU next month could license it for use and it could be available in Taiwan by June.
Company president Filippo Bosco and executive vice president Jessie Sun (孫偉芸) yesterday demonstrated the machine at a news conference.
The device, no larger than an electronic blood pressure monitor, can detect immunoglobulins M and G, which are antibodies produced in the body in the early and mid-late stage of COVID-19 infection, Sun said.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
As it is capable of producing results within 12 minutes, the machine could help detect whether patients are infected during the recovery period, screen local cluster infections, detect asymptomatic patients and screen those traveling abroad, she said.
It could also be used to verify whether patients should be cleared to leave the hospital, she added.
The machine last week underwent preliminary clinical tests at the Hvidovre Hospital near Copenhagen, Bosco said.
It has been able to identify whether the 15 subjects used in testing were positive or negative for the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, he said.
The company next week is looking to hold a larger-scale clinical trial — about 200 subjects — in Italy, Bosco said, adding that negotiations for conducting clinical trials in Taiwan are ongoing.
BluSense has previously developed diagnostic platforms for the Zika and dengue viruses, and the new platform had simply replaced the Zika and dengue virus antigen with a COVID-19 antigen, Sun said.
BluSense was established in 2014, with its equipment manufacturing and hardware development centers in Taoyuan’s Gueishan District (龜山), while its biochemistry research and development branch is in Copenhagen.
It received a US Agency for International Development grant in 2016 for developing ViroTrack, a rapid point of care diagnostics system using Blu-ray-based optical detection.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS