GSK and Mammoth Biosciences to Jointly Develop Handheld, Disposable and Rapid CRISPR-based Test for COVID-19

GSK Consumer Healthcare (Brentford, UK) and Mammoth Biosciences (San Francisco, CA, USA) have entered into a collaboration to develop a fully disposable, rapid and handheld COVID-19 test using a CRISPR-based platform.

The accurate, easy-to-use, fully disposable, rapid and handheld test can be used by consumers and healthcare providers in clinics to detect active SARS-CoV-2. The collaboration will use Mammoth’s CRISPR-based DETECTR platform that can identify and signal the presence of viral RNA strands obtained through a simple nasal swab. Beyond COVID-19, the platform has potential diagnostic applications spanning a variety of infectious diseases.


The new test will have the quality and reliability of Mammoth’s proprietary and patented DETECTR platform, which has peer-reviewed validation demonstrating the system’s potential to deliver diagnostic results for SARS-CoV-2 in a simple, consumer-friendly handheld format, while retaining gold standard sensitivity and specificity. The test, which has the potential to deliver point-of-use results in less than 20 minutes, will not require a complex laboratory setting with large equipment and time-consuming multi-step processes.

Both the companies are aiming to have a device submitted for FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) review before the end of 2020. The test will then be made available to US healthcare facilities that diagnose or treat COVID-19, and are eligible to use EUA-approved tests, with the goal of having it subsequently available over-the-counter to consumers. Following the development of a COVID test, both companies intend to explore how they can use the DETECTR technology platform to develop other types of diagnostics for consumer use.

“Our mission at Mammoth has always been to redefine the relationship that consumers have with their health, and through our collaboration with GSK Consumer Healthcare, we’ll be able to do just that,” said Trevor Martin, CEO and cofounder of Mammoth Biosciences. “COVID-19 is, of course, a key focus right now, but as a society what we need is a foundational shift in diagnostics – a scalable means to widely address disease detection. With a CRISPR-based diagnostic we can achieve a rapid and true point of need test without compromising the accuracy of molecular testing for all types of infectious diseases.”

“We are committed to helping our consumers stay healthy during this pandemic and believe access to quality and accurate testing is a critical need,” said Brian McNamara, CEO of GSK Consumer Healthcare. “We are excited to be working with Mammoth Biosciences and contributing our consumer insights and commercial expertise to develop a disposable rapid test that consumers can use to detect active COVID-19. We look forward to bringing the power of testing out of the lab and into people’s homes.”

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GlaxoSmithKline plc
Mammoth Biosciences