The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has awarded a contract to MeMed, totaling up to $9.2M, which will fund the completion of MeMed’s point of care platform for distinguishing bacterial from viral infections.

“We are excited by this vote of confidence. DTRA’s recognition of our work further positions MeMed as a world leader in immune-based diagnostics of infectious diseases,” said Eran Eden, PhD, MeMed’s CEO. “This joint effort, and our growing collaboration with other international stakeholders from industry and government, will facilitate the global availability of our tests aimed at combating antimicrobial resistance.”

Company co-founders Kfir Oved, MD/PhD and Eran Eden, PhD for the past eight years collaborated with leading researchers and clinicians from around the globe to study the changes that take place in the human immune system when it is fighting infections, in order to develop a human immune signature that accurately recognizes the difference between bacterial and viral infections. ImmunoXpert™, the first generation of this novel test, is already in use and has been validated in thousands of patients*. The second generation of the test involved development of a new point of care platform that is easy to use and takes only 15 minutes.

“The project will also evaluate and expand our test menu to detect early infections, even at the pre-symptomatic stage of a disease – currently a major challenge in our ability to control infections and epidemics,” said Tanya Gottlieb, PhD, MeMed’s VP Scientific Affairs.