Salignostics’ SaliStick – saliva-based pregnancy test – 2022 — Salignostics
Salignostics, an Israeli startup that develops home pregnancy testing devices, is now marketing the world’s first ever such device that can test using a woman’s saliva. SaliStick, the company’s saliva-based pregnancy test is ready to be sold in stores in Europe, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Israel in the beginning of 2023.
How many times have you seen this as a storyline in a movie or a TV show? A woman thinks she might be pregnant and so she rushes out to get a home pregnancy test from the nearest pharmacy. Such storylines are used for either dramatic or comedic effect, as the audience watches the woman or couple or group of friends as they wait anxiously for the results. And then the woman must see a doctor to be sure.
But these tests are complicated and use urine samples. Now imagine if someone could just lick a stick for a saliva sample in order to see if she is pregnant or not.
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So, now, Salignostics boasts that with its SaliStick, a pregnancy test can be done anywhere and at any convenient time. The product, says the company, is “very simple, easy to use, and delivers accurate results in a few minutes.”
The SaliStick kit has already been approved by the European CE certification and has received Medical Devices and Accessories approval from Israel’s Ministry of Health. Salignostics has completed a 510(K) initial Q-submission of SaliStick to the FDA in the US. To support the commercialization of SaliStick, the company has established a new manufacturing facility in the Lavon Industrial Zone in Northern Israel with a monthly production capacity of 1 million units.
Founded in 2016 by a team of researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who have many years of experience in cracking the secrets of saliva, Jerusalem-based Salignostics is an R&D company focusing on the development of saliva based rapid diagnostics tests (RDT), utilizing a lateral flow immunoassay platform. The company’s platform is comprised of a “tool box” of technologies which amplify the saliva as a detectable body-fluid by overcoming different chemical and biological saliva related obstacles. Implementation of these technologies transforms saliva from a non-detectable to a detectable body-fluid
Following years of scientific research in saliva, the company’s founders began commercializing their intellectual property and developed user-friendly products to accurately detect a range of physiological circumstances including pregnancy and COVID-19 on the basis of simple saliva samples. Among other innovations, the company developed products to detect malaria, cardiac risk, Helicobacter pylori and other diseases. During development of the tests, the company raised pre-seed and seed capital from private investors and received four grants from the Israel Innovation Authority. The company has raised a total of $16 million to date, and is now raising additional funding to support sales, marketing, and R&D.
“Saliva is the key to rapid diagnostics for a variety of medical reasons. It is the only non-invasive, easy, and hygienic means to detect hormones, viruses, and even diseases,” said Prof. Aaron Palmon, co-founder of Salignostics. “With SaliStick, we leverage the powerful diagnostics abilities we have been able to create from analyzing saliva. This product completely removes the need for blood and urine samples when testing for pregnancy.”
