General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) and Global Good have announced that they signed a licensing deal with Access Bio that will facilitate the manufacture and distribution of asymptomatic malaria diagnostic tests.
The new licensing agreement between GE, Global Good and Access Bio is expected to make it possible for global health workers to detect asymptomatic malaria faster especially in global regions that are characterized by low resources. This is because the new deal will allow for the manufacture and distribution of innovative diagnostic technologies that will aid in the cause. The deal is considered a significant effort towards eradicating malaria.
“Significantly enhancing the sensitivity of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) addresses gaps in rapid diagnostics that will bring us closer to eliminating the deadly disease in more and more regions around the world,” stated Maurizio Vecchione, the Global Good executive vice president.
GE and Global Good are committed towards the cause
Vecchione also pointed out that his firm and GE have a joint commitment with Access Bio to boost public health surveillance in a bid to identify low-level malaria infections. He also added that the eventual goal of the agreement and joint venture is to completely eliminate malaria.
The new diagnostic technologies for detecting malaria were created by joint efforts from engineers and scientists from both firms at GE’s Global Research Center. GE Ventures played a key part in speeding up growth and innovation with the partners as well as driving the commercialization model.
Joseph Suriano, the head of Technical Discipline at GE Global Research stated that the combination of serology tests and RDTs should be vital components for eliminating malaria. Serology tests will make it easier to determine whether a population has recently been exposed to the malaria parasite. This will make it easier to deploy highly sensitive tests for targeted use. The new deal involving the three firms involves highly sensitive tests that detect unique proteins usually found in malaria. Access Bio CEO Young Ho Choi stated that his company’s commercialization prowess will come in handy in the commercialization of the test materials.
GE stock closed the latest trading session at $26.58.