Coronavirus: EU-funded research project brings new rapid diagnostic to the market

One of the 18 projects, which were recently selected to receive funding of €48.2 million from Horizon 2020 to develop diagnostics, treatments, vaccines and preparedness actions in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic, is already delivering positive results. Researchers involved with the “HG nCoV19 test” project have obtained approval to put a new rapid point-of-care diagnostic for COVID-19 on the market. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “This is a great example of EU research in action. I am encouraged to see that these researchers have risen to the challenge, developed this new diagnostic system so fast, and delivered on one of the aims of our first emergency call. It’s crucial to diagnose coronavirus more quickly and more accurately, as it reduces the risk of further spread of the virus.” Bringing together public and private organisations from Ireland, Italy, the United Kingdom and China, the “HG nCoV19 test” project developed a new portable diagnostic system to detect viral infection that gives accurate and reliable results in 30 minutes. Today, HiberGene, the Irish company coordinating the project, announced that it had obtained the CE marking required for medical devices to be placed in the market. The EU has been supporting HiberGene since as far back as July 2000, while its support to this specific project amounts to €930.000. The Commission has been at the forefront of supporting research and innovationand coordinating European and global research efforts since the beginning of the pandemic. On 4 May, it pledged €1.4 billion in total during the Coronavirus Global Response pledging event, of which €1 billion comes through Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation programme, and is aimed at developing vaccines, new treatments and diagnostic tools to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Since January 2020, €474 million has already been mobilised under Horizon 2020 to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. More information is available here.