Seems these days as though breath analysis startups are all the rage – creating diagnostics that provide quick-turnover disease diagnosis. They’re primarily targeted to the public health set – allowing frontline health workers diagnose disease quickly can help expedite intervention time.
New Mexico startup Avisa Pharma is developing a breath-based diagnostic that can rapidly detect the presence of serious lung pathogens. It just raised nearly $4 million, according to regulatory filings. It’s conducted a proof of concept study with cystic fibrosis patients, and plans to study the device’s efficacy in patients around the world with tuberculosis. The test will then extend to health care-acquired pneumonia. The new funding round is on top of about $5 million the company has raised to date.
The test works by analyzing a patient’s breath metabolism of urease, a bacterial enzyme that converts the body’s natural urea to carbon dioxide and ammonia. It measures bacterial presence in the entire lung, and can be used early – before symptoms appear.
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“Inhaled 13C-labeled urea, AV-U13, is delivered to the entire lung and rapidly converted by bacterial urease into 13CO2,” the company says. This 13CO2 is then exhaled and detected by the company’s spectrophotometer. “The entire breath test process reports on urease-expressing lung pathogens from the increase in exhaled 3CO2 within minutes at the point-of-care whether it is a hospital, clinic, or out in the field.”
The company plans a PMA submission for 2017. Avisa has outlined its development pathway nicely: