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.
The first two F-16V Block 70 jets Taiwan purchased from the US were spotted unexpectedly turning back after departing from Hawaii yesterday, potentially further delaying delivery of the aircraft. Taiwan has purchased 66 of the F-16 C/D Block 70 jets to be deployed at Chihhang Air Base (志航基地) in Taitung County and operated by the air force's 7th Tactical Fighter Wing to defend Taiwan’s eastern region. Two single-seat jets, bearing serial No. 6727 and 6728, were spotted taking off from Hickam Field in Hawaii yesterday, observers said. Based on the precedent set during the delivery of Taiwan's older F-16 Block 20s, the new
Taiwan’s growing defense preparations might be sending a stronger signal to the US than to Beijing, highlighting the need for Taipei to tailor its deterrence efforts to different audiences, a US security academic said yesterday. Stanford University Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies fellow Oriana Skylar Mastro made the comment during a Taipei Security Dialogue panel examining lessons Taiwan could draw from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Mastro said she was impressed by Taiwan’s increased defense spending, emphasis on asymmetric capabilities and efforts to prepare society for conflict, but questioned whom those initiatives were influencing. She said when she asked
A sharp rise in compensation to be paid by air force officers who leave before completing their required service could indicate an increase in pilots leaving the military early, an analyst said on Friday, warning that the trend could worsen a shortage of experienced personnel. Chieh Chung (揭仲), a researcher at the Association for Strategic Foresight, issued the warning even though the number of volunteer military personnel is expected to increase next year. The planned headcount for volunteer military personnel, covering officers, noncommissioned officers (NCO) and enlisted soldiers, is 158,223 for next year, up 4,258 from 153,965 this year, Chieh said. The increase
Potential improvements to munitions used by China’s long-range rocket-artillery units could extend their range to cover the entire Miyako Strait, which might give the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) the ability to secure the strategic waterway, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a report. The PLA’s long-range rocket-artillery units deployed along the Taiwan Strait are concentrated along the coast of Fujian Province, including Changle, Pingtan and Shishi, the quarterly report on China said. The artillery brigades of the PLA’s 71st, 72nd and 73rd group armies have been deployed, with preparations for potential battlefield operations under way since August 2022, the report
RSS