Around two years ago Scanwell went to market together with Lemonaid to launch a first-of-its-kind smartphone test for UTIs. Two weeks ago the medtech company BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) has announced its acquisition. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
BD collaborated with Scanwell to develop the app used with the recently launched BD Veritor At-Home COVID-19 Test, an at-home COVID-19 test that uniquely uses a smartphone camera and app to capture and interpret results, eliminating the human subjectivity in other visually read at-home antigen tests. Scanwell will become the foundational digital platform upon which BD plans to develop at-home diagnostic tests for a range of infectious diseases including COVID-19/influenza A+B, group A strep and additional menu for detecting infections and managing chronic disease.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to new care settings, and BD is ready to deliver a smart, connected at-home diagnostic ecosystem to support traditional and telehealth providers and consumers,” said Dave Hickey, president of Life Sciences for BD. “This acquisition will enable us to expand and scale our digital capabilities in-house to speed time to market for transformative at-home solutions now and in the future.”
The Scanwell app is a key differentiator in the market for at-home COVID-19 testing. According to the company to date, no other company uses the phone’s camera to capture the image of the test that is then analyzed and interpreted by the app. Other COVID-19 home tests use smartphones as part of their process, but BD Veritor At-Home COVID-19 Test is the first and only test to use the smartphone as the analyzer to digitally interpret the test results and provide a definitive POSITIVE or NEGATIVE digital display of testing results. The app also has the capabilities to securely store and report test results to organizations, including businesses, public health authorities and schools. The results of tests are stored in the app and can be referenced and displayed at any time by simply logging into the app.
