{"id":102858,"date":"2017-03-07T17:01:43","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T17:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/pressreleases\/?p=102858"},"modified":"2017-03-07T17:01:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T17:01:43","slug":"brevitest-awarded-grant-from-national-institute-on-drug-abuse-to-optimize-device-for-rapid-opioid-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/pressreleases\/brevitest-awarded-grant-from-national-institute-on-drug-abuse-to-optimize-device-for-rapid-opioid-testing_102858.html","title":{"rendered":"BreviTest Awarded Grant from National Institute on Drug Abuse To Optimize Device for Rapid Opioid Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BreviTest Technologies has been awarded a $225,000 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore rapid testing for opioids. The federal funds, awarded under the NIH’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, will be used to develop BreviTest’s rapid automated analyzer as a point-of-care diagnostics device for use in the physician’s office.<\/p>\n

BreviTest Technologies has developed a portable analyzer to perform a rapid, quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test within a ten-minute run time. Unlike testing in clinical laboratories, which can take several hours and requires expensive equipment and experienced technicians, BreviTest’s point-of-care technology can perform tests in the doctor’s office in about the same time it takes to brew a pot of coffee, using customizable disposable cartridges and established chemistries.<\/p>\n

The misuse of prescription opioid drugs accounts for nearly one-fifth of all drug-related deaths in the U.S. In response to this painkiller epidemic, federal officials have launched a number of initiatives, including educational programs for physicians, designed to halt the abuse and\/or misuse of prescription opioid drugs. A key recommendation of several federal agencies, including the CDC, is to use urine drug testing before prescribing opioids to establish overdosing or misuse.<\/p>\n

Most physicians who are not part of practices seeing a high volume of pain management patients lack an ability to perform a urine test without sending samples out to a testing laboratory and waiting for the result.<\/p>\n

“These physicians face the difficult choice of either making the patients wait in pain for days before they can receive prescription narcotics, or prescribing medication at risk,” said BreviTest’s Michael J. Heffernan, PhD, principal investigator on the project.<\/p>\n

In collaboration with Houston-based APC Health, LLC, BreviTest aims to develop its portable analyzer to accurately test opioid levels in pain management patients.<\/p>\n

“Since 1999, the amount of prescription opioids sold in the U.S. has nearly quadrupled, without an accurate, affordable, and universal testing methodology,” said Rohan Nath, Managing Member of APC Health. “Many practicing physicians that I know would welcome an easy-to-use, accurate point-of-care solution to test patients prior to prescribing opioids.<\/p>\n

BreviTest’s novel approach re-imagines the immunoassay method as serial reactions in connected microfluidic chambers, which eliminates the traditional requirement of multiple washes to comprehensively remove residual reactants. BreviTest’s patented technology has been reduced to practice with a prototype that successfully demonstrated completely automated ELISA reactions.<\/p>\n

BreviTest Technologies, LLC is managed by Fannin Innovation Studio (www.fannininnovation.com<\/a>), an early-stage life science development firm that provides seed capital, office space, and management support to its portfolio companies.<\/p>\n

“BreviTest has assembled a strong team of scientists and engineers that is at the forefront of point-of-care diagnostics technology,” said Fannin executive chairman Leo Linbeck III. “Since our investment in BreviTest Technologies, the team continues to make rapid progress in the engineering development of the analyzer, as well as verification of the device’s accuracy in comparison to established assays.”<\/p>\n

A simple, easy, affordable analyzer for a quick and quantitative assay of opioids in urine is a pressing clinical need to aid doctors in diagnosing opioid-related problems and combat the growing epidemic of opioid abuse.<\/p>\n

“More people died from drug overdoses in 2014 than in any year on record,” said Nath. “As a forward-looking medical testing organization, we believe that this collaboration has a high probability of success to fill a much-needed gap in public health.”<\/p>\n

Media Contact<\/span>
Company Name:<\/strong> Fannin Innovation Studio
Contact Person:<\/strong> Anna Halvorson
Email:<\/strong> anna@penmanpr.com
Phone:<\/strong> 713-502-9252
City:<\/strong> Houston
State:<\/strong> Texas
Country:<\/strong> United States
Website:<\/strong> www.FanninInnovation.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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BreviTest Technologies has been awarded a $225,000 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore rapid testing for opioids. The federal funds, awarded under the NIH’s Small Business Innovation Research … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[401],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/pressreleases\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/pressreleases\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/pressreleases\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/pressreleases\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/pressreleases\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/pressreleases\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/pressreleases\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/pressreleases\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}