Beckman Coulter announced that it received an expanded partnership with BARDA for its expanding COVID-19 medical countermeasure portfolio.
BARDA (the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services) awarded Beckman Coulter the partnership in collaboration with Dascena, Inc. The collaboration will offer advanced research and development toward optimizing a machine-learning-based sepsis diagnostic and prediction algorithm to include use with COVID-19 patients.
The algorithm builds on Beckman Coulter’s existing Early Sepsis Indicator that the FDA cleared last year. It combines the monocyte distribution width novel laboratory test parameter values with Dascena’s electronic health record data-based machine learning algorithm to predict and detect sepsis.
Beckman Coulter chief medical officer Dr. Shamiram Feinglass said in a news release that COVID-19 is changing the cause of sepsis cases, forcing a paradigm shift in the way the industry thinks about sepsis, leading to the collaboration to produce a prediction algorithm that helps detect sepsis regardless of whether it is bacterial or viral-induced.
“The global impact that COVID-19 has had on the health system is undeniable,” Beckman Coulter hematology business senior VP & GM Peter Soltani said in the release. “It has changed the way the industry thinks about so many things, and sepsis is no exception.
“Beckman Coulter is deeply committed to the fight against COVID-19 and has been working diligently to quickly bring quality SARS-CoV-2 serology assays to the market. We are thrilled to expand our partnership with BARDA, so we can extend that commitment to our sepsis research and begin clinical trials that include COVID-19 patients.”
