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March 16, 2021 Press Release

 
 

GRAND PRIZE WINNERS SELECTED IN $6M XPRIZE RAPID COVID TESTING COMPETITION TO CREATE FAST, FREQUENT, CHEAP, AND EASY-TO-USE SOLUTIONS

LOS ANGELES (March 16, 2021) -- XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, is pleased to announce today the five winning teams in the $6M XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing competition, with each winner creating high-quality, affordable COVID-19 testing to help society safely reopen and return to everyday activities. 

Chosen by an independent panel of judges, the grand prize winning solutions are radically affordable compared to what is currently available on the market; and are comparable to commercial offerings at measuring sensitivity, specificity and limit of detection, with a maximum turnaround time of 12 hours from sample to result

The winning teams are: 

“We are thrilled to announce the winners of the XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing, which awarded multiple winners with unique testing solutions to help prevent future supply chain problems,” said Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE. “We started this journey to ensure communities across the globe have access to fast, affordable, and easy-to-use COVID-19 tests. We are grateful to have the best entrepreneurial and scientific teams on board to help bring their solutions to scale so we can properly reopen schools, businesses, and other vital institutions around the world.”

Following the December finalist announcements, the 20 teams sent their testing kits and protocols to two separate laboratories, for clinical validation. The independent judges, composed of diverse experts in the healthcare and COVID-19 space, reviewed each team’s lab results, testing concepts, and proposals before deciding on the winners. 

“While vaccines are important, we cannot rely on them alone to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and future outbreaks, especially not until they are provided around the world, en masse and at-scale,” said Jeff Huber, President & Co-Founder of OpenCovidScreen. “These technological breakthroughs in rapid covid testing are providing a safety net to ensure the spread of the disease is contained and to enable a safe return to work and school, and to protect hotspots like nursing homes. These advancements are key to helping underserved, under-resourced communities get access to affordable, accurate tests and to ultimately save more lives now and in the future.”

Additionally, four other teams were selected as winners in the Open Innovation Track, whose approaches demonstrated high potential for impactful screening solutions, but could not be categorized as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Isothermal Amplification, Next Generation Sequencing, or Antigen Detection and could not be tested through the competition rounds. 

The four winning teams in the Open Innovation Track are: 

The XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing judges included:

  • Dr. Rick Bright, Ph.D, Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis

  • Shawna Butler, R.N. M.D.A., Nurse Economist

  • Dr. Charity Dean, CEO and Co-Founder, The Public Health Company

  • Dr. Paul Drain, Associate Professor, Departments of Global Health, Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Washington

  • Dr. Anita Goel, Physicist and Physician, Chairman and CEO, Nanobiosym

  • Dr. Michael Mina, Physician-Scientist and Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard School of Public Health

  • Dr. Anne Wyllie, Associate Research Scientist, Yale School of Public Health

“The competition was open to all modalities of molecular testing, and the teams submitted an impressive range of ideas. The winners created innovative technologies in rapid PCR, novel antigens, and point-of-care LAMP as well as pioneering some of the first-ever olfaction and breathalyzer tests,” said Chris Mason, Leader of the Science Team and a Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Launched this past July amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this prize comes out of the XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance to bring researchers, innovators, institutions, corporations, and governments together to share ideas and resources in the fight against the current and future pandemics. Since launch, 85 organizations have joined the Alliance, where they have been able to share ideas and research through its digital collaboration platform Exchange, as well as through the XPRIZE Data Collaborative, a unique platform for innovators to collaborate, share and learn from data in a broad spectrum of fields in their search for solutions. 

To amplify impact, a $50 million COVID Apollo Project led by experienced life sciences investors and company builders – including RA Capital, Bain Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Redmile Group, and Samsara Biocapital – will work with OpenCovidScreen, the XPRIZE community, and beyond to accelerate the best ideas, technologies, and innovations to market and scale them.

The Anthem Foundation and Anthem, Inc., serve as the Founding Anchor Partners of XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing. Seven major national and regional health plans are collaborating as founding partners: Blue Shield of California, Cambia Health Solutions, Inc, Health Care Service Corporation, GuideWell Mutual Holding Corporation, Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc. (NJ), BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. Supporting partners include leading healthcare, laboratory and technology companies: Google, Amazon, Ilumina, Ancestry, Testing for America, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Exact Sciences, Centerview Partners, Twist Bioscience, Opentrons, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Weill Cornell Medicine , Biotia, Inc and Medical College of Wisconsin.

Teams will work the remainder of the year to accelerate the adoption of their solutions on a massive scale. XPRIZE will oversee the development of a multimedia playbook documenting the testing protocols,plans implemented and lessons learned at deployment sites where this incredible testing technology will be rolled out. XPRIZE is currently inviting communities like schools, offices, factories, nursing homes, homeless shelters, and other communities to apply to be part of this innovative roll-out. For more information and to apply to be a deployment site, visit https://www.xprize.org/prizes/covidtesting/community-deployment. 

March 11, 2021 Press Release

 
 

Covid Apollo Project Makes Investment in Rhinostics to Accelerate Covid-19 Testing Volumes Through High Throughput Sample Accessioning

New York, NY and Cambridge, MA – March 11, 2021.  In a Series A round, Covid Apollo announces its investment in Rhinostics, an early-stage company that provides a novel solution of enabling comfortable sample collection, rapid accessioning, and automated cap removal that can be linked to high throughput Covid-19 assays to remove wasted time, headcount and costs from laboratory workflows. 

The Covid Apollo Project brings together expertise and capital to find and help scale the most promising Covid-19 diagnostic opportunities.  Originally funded under the leadership of RA Capital Management, the Project includes Redmile Group, Samsara BioCapital, Perceptive Advisors, and Bain Capital.  “Returning to school and work requires sustainable testing solutions,” said Parker Cassidy, Principal at RA Capital Management and a member of Covid Apollo’s Board of Directors.  “Covid Apollo is focused on finding and accelerating the most promising COVID testing solutions to rebuild testing paradigms to address the unique challenges that the pandemic has presented.  Rhinostics is a great example of a company bringing new technologies and thinking to a segment of the laboratory workflow that is antiquated and ripe for innovation and acceleration.”

“The investment in Rhinostics is right on mission for Covid Apollo.  With our investments, we are aiming to accelerate technologies that can immediately impact COVID testing, which still struggles to meet testing demand, while also providing new tests and diagnostic tools and processes to enable ubiquitous testing in the future, providing not only better pandemic protection and monitoring but also new testing paradigms, that will empower patients and consumers to live safer and healthier lives” commented Stefan Willemsen, Chief Executive Officer of Covid Apollo.  He adds that “the team at Rhinostics has rapidly executed on its strategic plan to bring their products to market, already providing significant volumes of product into COVID testing laboratories.  We are excited to support their next phase of growth, commercialization and global impact on the pandemic.”

Rhinostics spun out of Harvard University to commercialize a novel automated nasal collection device invented in partnership by two Harvard faculty, Mike Springer, Associate Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School; and Richard Novak, Lead Staff Engineer at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.  The novel nasal collection swab has features that can increase sample throughput by more than 10-fold while removing labor and errors from the laboratory workflow.  The swab is integrated onto a cap that can be automated for removal from the tube while all 96 samples are simultaneously accessioned through scanning a 2D barcode on the bottom of the tubes.  The product, registered as a Class I exempt medical device with the FDA, is currently being testing in several clinical trials, and the company is beginning an Emergency Use Authorization study comparing the RHINOstic™ swab to nasopharyngeal assays with a variety of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays.  The product provides an immediate impact for increasing COVID testing efficiencies while being applicable to a broader range of respiratory viral, bacterial, and genetic testing using the PCR and next generation sequencing (NGS).

Cheri Walker, Chief Executive Officer of Rhinostics commented, “We are thrilled to have Covid Apollo as a partner and investor to join our efforts to positively impact laboratory workflows and make a major impact on COVID testing volumes.  Our missions are perfectly aligned to make a difference now.  In addition, having Stefan as a board member will be a huge asset, as he is bringing more than 20 years of experience in leadership roles in the IVD industry to our fast-growing company, providing strategic advice and keen business insight.  Together, we can change laboratory workflows for COVID and beyond.” 

For decades there has been no innovation in viral collection and the process of moving samples into laboratories.  The Rhinostics comfortable nasal swab solution brings new materials, better assay performance, dry shipment, instantaneous accessioning, and automated cap removal, all of which together can allow labs to significantly increase their sample throughput with no increase in footprint or staffing.  This is changing the way laboratories think about their workflows.

About Rhinostics

Rhinostics is revolutionizing laboratory workflows to link sample to result seamlessly.  The company’s products improve sample collection performance while removing costs and time compared to traditional collection and intake.  The products bring new materials, new collection types, rapid accessioning and automation to remove caps and move samples into high throughput workflows with little human intervention.  The RHINOstic™ nasal swab provides features that increase sample throughput by more than 10-fold while removing labor and errors from the laboratory workflow. The swab is integrated onto a cap that can be automated for removal from the tube while all 96 samples are simultaneously accessioned through scanning a 2D barcode on the bottom of the tubes. The product provides an immediate impact to increasing COVID testing efficiencies while being applicable to broader respiratory viral, bacterial, and genetic testing using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and next generation sequencing (NGS). The RHINOstic™ product is registered as Class I exempt medical device with the FDA and is available for purchase. To learn more, visit https://www.rhinostics.com.

 
 

$50 MILLION COVID APOLLO PROJECT LAUNCHES TO IDENTIFY, ASSEMBLE, DEVELOP, AND SCALE PROMISING COVID-19 DIAGNOSTICS

Covid Apollo has pledged $4.5 million to help fund the $5 million XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing  competition, run by XPRIZE and OpenCovidScreen.

BOSTON (July 28, 2020) -- A safe and sustainable return to work and school is only possible with an adequate supply of fast, inexpensive, easy-to-use Covid-19 tests. To accomplish this goal, a team of like-minded life sciences investors has created the Covid Apollo Project.

The Project brings together the expertise and capital necessary to identify, assemble, develop, and scale the most promising Covid-19 diagnostic opportunities. We aim to bring the first of these to market in time for flu season this fall. The Covid Apollo Project is committing $50 million to launch this effort.

Covid Apollo was organized and funded under the leadership of RA Capital, a prominent biotechnology-focused investment firm, in collaboration with Redmile Group, Samsara BioCapital, Perceptive Advisors, and Bain Capital. All of these firms will contribute to evaluating and scaling up technologies that Covid Apollo will accelerate.

Until there’s a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine deployed globally, we need frequent testing to allow for safe return to work and school. But today’s testing solutions are either inadequate, expensive, or at insufficient scale. In the US alone, researchers estimate that 20 million Covid tests per day would be needed to remobilize the economy. Right now, we’re testing roughly 800,000 Americans per day – an effort focused on symptomatic patients and therefore catching only a fraction of what’s needed to control the spread of Covid.

“Relying on our current and creaky Covid diagnostic infrastructure to reach 20 million people every day is as impossible as it is impractical,” said RA Capital Managing Partner Peter Kolchinsky. “We lack the capacity, and testing remains too expensive with labs charging $100+ for each test. Even if we could expand the current system it would cost $2 billion each and every day, an amount that would cripple state Medicaid programs and other payers. Meanwhile, Americans must sometimes wait hours for a test and days or even weeks for the results, rendering the current testing paradigm useless at best and dangerous at worst.”

Remedying this will take not just one test, but an intelligently integrated set of tests. We believe these tests must work together to:

  1. quickly and very inexpensively (even if not accurately) screen for who could be infected, and, of those,

  2. determine quickly and accurately (even if not inexpensively) who actually is infected,

  3. inexpensively and accurately (even if not quickly) identify who was infected in the past and, of those

  4. determine inexpensively who currently is immune to serious infection.

 

XPRIZE: A Competitive Solution

Covid Apollo Project has pledged $4.5 million to help fund the $5 million XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing competition, run by XPRIZE and OpenCovidScreen. This six month competition aims to set a new, higher standard of COVID-19 testing by developing low cost, easy to use, and fast-turnaround solutions, enabling frequent testing to catch occurrences before they become outbreaks and help society safely reopen.

A $1-million grand prize will be awarded to each of the top five teams that develop frequent, fast, cheap and easy Covid-19 screening solutions that help meet the surging demand for tests and relieve the global supply chain. To meet qualification deadlines, all competitors must register by August 31. From there, independent judges will assess all entries and assign a pass or no pass, with a max of 200 semifinalists. To cut the field down even further, semifinalists will evaluate their technologies against a common proficiency test, leaving scientific experts a pool of just fifty validated diagnostics to review – ten each in five different assay categories: LAMP-based, PCR-based, CRISPR-based, sequencing-based, and an Open category to cover new technologies and modalities – with three to four finalists chosen per category.

Covid Apollo Project is the Founding Investment Partner for the Rapid Covid Testing competition, offering the winners as well as any of the 200 semi-finalists the opportunity to be backed by a team of investors with diagnostics experience to realize their vision. Covid Apollo may invest in other companies outside the competition, enter into license agreements with universities and companies, and may otherwise incubate nascent projects. 

“Returning to school and work will require market-based and sustainable testing solutions,” said Parker Cassidy, Principal at RA Capital and a member of Covid Apollo’s Board of Directors. “Covid Apollo has the resolve and expertise to identify a holistic COVID testing solution and accelerate the most promising concepts quickly and efficiently. We believe that we can build a coherent Covid testing paradigm from technologies and ideas originating from disparate regions of the technology landscape. Together, we can see the big picture and cut through the barriers that otherwise keep good technologies from being integrated into a great solution. And we’re getting to work immediately.”

“If Covid Apollo is successful, it will not only have helped get Covid-19 under control for the long run, but will have also laid the foundation for a better testing paradigm, for the US and possibly the world, should we be faced with another future pandemic threat,” said Jeff Huber, President & Co-Founder of OpenCovidScreen.

 

ABOUT XPRIZE

XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges. Active competitions include the $20 Million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, the $10 Million Rainforest XPRIZE, the $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, the $5 Million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE and the $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling. For more information, visit xprize.org.

 

ABOUT THE XPRIZE PANDEMIC ALLIANCE

The XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance is a global coalition that combines the power of collaboration, competition, innovation, and radical thinking to accelerate solutions that can be applied to Covid-19 and future pandemics. For information about the XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance and to join the fight, please visit covid19.xprize.org.

 

ABOUT OPENCOVIDSCREEN

OpenCovidScreen is a non-profit founded by scientists and business leaders committed to an “Open Science” model to drive needed innovation and help solve the critical unmet need for Covid-19 testing that is Frequent, Fast-turnaround, Cheap, and Easy, to enable safe Return-to-Work & School. For more information, visit OpenCovidScreen.org or @OpenCovidScreen on Twitter. Donations welcomed at OpenCollective.com/OpenCovidScreen

 

ABOUT COVID APOLLO PROJECT

Covid Apollo Project aims to enable a safe and sustainable return to work and school by identifying, assembling, developing, and scaling the most promising Covid-19 diagnostic opportunities. Covid Apollo was organized and funded under the leadership of RA Capital, a prominent biotechnology-focused investment firm, in collaboration with Redmile Group, Samsara BioCapital, Perceptive Advisors, and Bain Capital, and with legal support from Goodwin Procter. All of these firms will contribute to evaluating and scaling up technologies that Covid Apollo will accelerate.