Some encouraging news in the fight against the novel coronavirus.
Spartan Bioscience has announced it has received approval from Health Canada to sell its rapid COVID-19 testing device.
The company says the first-of-its-kind mobile system, made in Canada, can provide quality results to remote communities, industries and settings with limited lab access.
The product was actually given the go-ahead by Health Canada back in April and Spartan began shipping them out. But, a few weeks later, Spartan voluntarily recalled the 5,500 units, after Health Canada expressed concerns about the test's effectiveness.
Spartan submitted its application, again, last month.
Spartan Bioscience co-founder and director, Dr. Jamie Spiegelman, who is also an internal medicine and critical care specialist at Humber River Hospital, spoke with our media partner CP24 about the new rapid testing system and how it'll be a game-changer in helping to curb the spread of COVID-19.
"I just came off a 24-hour shift in the ICU at Humber hospital, where I treated 25 patients on ventilators and all the times these patients that I see in the ICU have family members and they're exposed to other people... [It] is a game-changer because it does provide supplemental testing towards - like these outbreaks that we're seeing. The fact is, it's quite small - the size of a coffee cup...it's easy to use. I taught my 10-year-old daughter how to do it in five minutes."
The company says its Spartan cube [shaped]Â testing device can provide results within an hour.
"We've done...multi-national clinical trials with our current test and Health Canada realized that is actually quite useful and quite accurate, and they did - based on these trials, they approved it. You know, I've tested this out myself. I was part of some of the trials initially and I've probably tested about 200 people or patients or subjects in the research studies with this and it's quite accurate, compared to the central lab tests that I've seen, so I'm pretty excited about this and I think it's going to help our society open up, really."
Production of a new supply of the Spartan rapid tests is already underway.
In a news release, the company says shipments will begin immediately to federal and provincial government partners, as well as Spartan’s commercial customers, adding that it will help "relieve the burden on overwhelmed healthcare facilities."