MedGenome's silver bullet for TB diagnostics: SPIT SEQ

India—home to the largest number of people living with drug-resistant TB—now has a first-of-its-kind test to diagnose TB drug resistance fast and with precision. But like the two diagnostic tests before it, SPIT SEQ must now figure out how to sell to millions

India’s 2.8 million TB patients received a rare dose of good news in August—an indigenous, more thorough and accurate test for TB

But SPIT SEQ’s path to the mass market won’t be easy. At Rs 7,500, it’s close to 10X more expensive than existing diagnostic tools like TrueNat and GeneXpert

It took TrueNat years to get approval to become part of the national TB programme. SPIT SEQ, though, is from the stable of Sequoia-funded MedGenome

With deep-pocketed backers and a huge potential market the world over, SPIT SEQ could still have a bright future

August saw two major milestones for diagnosing and curing extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR TB—the most drug-resistant of TB strains. On 14 August, the US drug regulator approved a new drug—Pretomanid—only the third new antibiotic developed to fight TB in over half a century. It’s a ray of hope for some 2,700 people living with the superbug in India, as per 2018 figures from the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP).

AUTHOR

Suraksha P

Suraksha writes on Healthcare and Pharma. She has been a journalist for five years, reporting for The New Indian Express in Bengaluru and Chennai, and The Times of India, Delhi. In her previous stints she has written on health, civic issues and education. She investigated cover up of corruption in the state health department’s think tank, narrated harrowing tales of women who underwent unwarranted hysterectomies, and wrote about how loss of biometrics came in the way of Leprosy patients getting an Aadhaar card and thereby pension. She can be reached at suraksha at the-ken dot com.

View Full Profile