Sona Nanotech Inc. and GE Healthcare Life Sciences will jointly complete test development of the Sona Covid-19 Coronavirus rapid response lateral flow test, and will use GE Healthcare Life Sciences’ Fast Flow High Performance Membrane (FFHP) in production of the test. Sona will retain all commercial rights to the resulting test.

The companies will work in parallel to complete the test prior to field testing. GE Healthcare Life Sciences will support Sona through their studies as they work to get their rapid-response Covid-19 lateral flow test introduced into markets as quickly as possible.

The Sona Covid-19 lateral flow test will utilize GE Healthcare Life Sciences’ FFHP Membrane, which is specifically designed to allow for multiple optimization techniques (potentially allowing the test to become market-ready sooner) and fast flow performance (potentially allowing for faster individual test results)

Darren Rowles, CEO of Sona Nanotech, said, “It is exciting to work with a best-in-class partner like GE Healthcare Life Sciences, drawing on their expertise and to use the new FFHP Membrane. With their help, we will be able to accelerate our work and hopefully bring this critical test to the market quicker.”

Klaus Hochleitner, Global Lead, Technology Product Specialist GE Healthcare Life Sciences, said, “This collaboration all started when Darren and I connected following my social media post offering to collaborate on a Covid-19 diagnostic.  This ties in to our daily mission of advancing and accelerating therapeutics, by supporting the global scientific community working tirelessly to address the Covid-19 outbreak.”

Sona expects to provide near-term updates on the development of its rapid-response Covid-19 test.