- Sona Nanotech (SONA) is discontinuing the clinical trial of its COVID-19 rapid, antigen saliva test
- Inadequate test sensitivity with clinical saliva samples and challenges with patient enrollment were cited as contributing factors to the decision
- The company will continue with its other rapid test development programs and research on its proprietary gold nanorod production technology
- Sona Nanotech Inc. is a nanotechnology life sciences firm
- Sona Nanotech Inc. (SONA) opened trading at C$1.02 per share
Sona Nanotech (SONA) is discontinuing the clinical trial of its COVID-19 rapid, antigen saliva test after a review of the initial results.
The decision to discontinue the trial is due to inadequate test sensitivity with clinical saliva samples and challenges with patient recruitment and enrollment, as the local prevalence of the virus has been significantly reduced.
The company plans to continue with its other rapid test development programs and research on its proprietary gold nanorod production technology.
Clinical trial principal investigator, Dr. David Jacobs of Humber River Hospital, comments,
“Unfortunately, as is often the case with prototypes, the early laboratory results did not translate well into the clinical environment. While there are many possible reasons for this discrepancy, the favored hypotheses are that either there is insufficient viral concentration in saliva, or there is an interfering substance in the saliva.”
“We are disappointed that our COVID-19 test failed to demonstrate sufficient ability to detect the virus in saliva in clinical samples to warrant further investigation, but we are grateful to our collaborators at Humber River Hospital and to the volunteers in the trial,” said David Regan, CEO, Sona Nanotech.
“We are surprised that our clinical trial did not show a corresponding level of sensitivity to our laboratory studies which showed that our saliva test was able to detect gamma irradiated COVID-19 virus at clinically relevant levels. We were attempting to blaze a new and challenging trail in adding a less invasive, saliva-based rapid test to the arsenal of tests being used to detect the virus, something for which no other company has achieved an FDA EUA or Health Canada approval. We look forward to continuing further bold pursuits in new applications that leverage both our proprietary gold nanorod technology and the considerable base of experience afforded to us by our COVID-19 test development program.”
Sona Nanotech Inc. is a nanotechnology life sciences firm that has developed multiple proprietary methods for the manufacture of various types of gold nanoparticles.
Sona Nanotech Inc. (SONA) opened trading at C$1.02 per share.
