The Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund, Japan recently announced an investment of approximately 420 million yen ($3.8 million) for a highly sensitive rapid diagnostic kit for tuberculosis (TB) known as TB-LAM, being developed by Japan's Fujifilm Corporation and Switzerland's Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND).

The current and most widely available method for diagnosing Mycobacterium tuberculosis uses patients' sputum. However, TB diagnosis presents a challenge, particularly for people living with HIV, as some cannot produce sputum, resulting in untimely and inaccurate diagnoses.

Fujifilm and FIND's TB-LAM diagnostic tool, however, can overcome these challenges in diagnosing tuberculosis by using a patient's urine instead of their sputum. This breakthrough technology is also inexpensive, highly sensitive, and does not require large equipment or a power supply to operate, so it can be utilized in resource-limited settings in low- and middle-income countries.