News

New project to build local capability for global impact

Health Security Systems Australia (HSSA) has engaged with ZiP Diagnostics, Axxin and Defence scientists to advance a point-of-care (POC) diagnostic capability for the detection of priority pathogens in the Indo-Pacific region.

The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered a gap in sovereign manufacturing of diagnostic tests. Increasing capability for sovereign diagnostic manufacturing will combat supply chain threats, and support Australia’s role in providing health and medical leadership across the Indo-Pacific region.

HSSA’s Medical Countermeasures program received strategic investment from the Department of Defence, to fund collaborative research and development projects to meet this need for domestic manufacturing of diagnostic test and the associated technologies.

Image courtesy of ZiP Diagnostics

This three-year collaboration will deliver tests that can detect a range of regionally-significant pathogens using a low cost and rapid POC platform, providing a field-deployable test result in 15-30 minutes, thus enabling immediate clinical care. This technology will be produced in partnership by ZiP Diagnostics and Axxin, and will leverage a vertically-integrated domestic manufacturing capability.

Dr Jack Richards, Scientific Director of ZiP Diagnostics, said the investment in this project illustrates a commitment to support Australian companies to develop innovative technologies and undertaking their manufacturing activities locally.

“This is a wonderful example of the capability to solve complex biomedical defence threats when there is cross-organisation collaboration that includes multiple Defence agencies and Australian industry partners.

“We are proud to support sovereign manufacturing for these priority threats and will help to secure Australia’s capability to respond against novel threats that may emerge in the future.”

The full media release is available here.