US-based Pfizer has acquired University of Queensland (UQ) startup ResApp Health Limited for USD 179 million.
ResApp, an ASX-listed company based in Brisbane, Australia has developed simple and inexpensive smartphone technology that can accurately identify respiratory diseases based on cough analysis.
UQ’s commercialization company UniQuest licensed the UQ technology to ResApp in September 2014.
It was developed by a team of researchers, led by Sri Lankan Professor Udantha Abeyratne.
The technology records a patient’s cough on a smartphone and analyses sounds and simple symptoms, such as a runny nose, to diagnose and measure the severity of a range of chronic and acute diseases.
They include asthma, pneumonia, bronchiolitis, croup and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
ResApp recently announced positive results for its COVID-19 screening test.
Clinical trials are continuing and the company said if successful the technology could potentially reduce the number of PCR and rapid antigen tests used worldwide.
