Pfizer has offered $100 million to buy a Brisbane-based company that has invented a smartphone app it says can diagnose COVID-19 by listening to someone cough.
Key points:
- The company says the app has a 92 per cent success rate when diagnosing COVID-19
- ResApp described the $100 million offer from Pfizer as “a game changer”
- Pfizer says the proposed acquisition could help “pave a new era in digital health”
ResApp CEO and managing director Tony Keating described the deal as a potential “game changer” for dealing with COVID-19.
“Pfizer represents a huge opportunity to get this test into people’s hands,” Dr Keating said.
Pfizer is one of the world’s largest bio-pharmaceutical companies.
ResApp began with research performed by professor Udantha Abeyratne at the University of Queensland.
“He came up with the idea that cough sounds contain information about what’s going on inside your lungs,” Dr Keating said.
Doctors are currently using a version of the app to help diagnose respiratory conditions such as asthma and pneumonia during telehealth appointments.
It was only recently that researchers discovered the technology could be used to detect COVID-19 if a patient coughed five times into a microphone.
Dr Keating said recent studies showed a 92 per cent success rate in diagnosing the virus, but
