WA start-up in FIFO trial

A COVID-19 screening system designed by West Perth start-up Avicena Systems has been cleared for use in a large-scale trial in the state’s fly-in, fly-out workforce.

Avicena is behind the development of Sentinel System, a rapid screening system for COVID-19 and other pathogens using saliva samples that is capable of testing more than 90,000 people daily and delivering results in under an hour.

The business was awarded a $500,000 grant from the state government in 2020 to develop a prototype for the system and another $150,000 the year after to establish a production facility.

Over the weekend, Avicena was approved to undertake regular screening of workers in the resources industry under the ‘Sentinel Surveillance DETECT study’ in collaboration with Curtin University.

Sentinel is believed to deliver accuracy comparable to PCR tests that is also faster and lower in cost.

It is also more accurate than Rapid Antigen Tests in detecting infectious individuals with lower viral lodes in early stages. 

Avicena executive chair and co-founder Paul Watt said he was pleased with the news.

“We are delighted to be able to contribute to safeguarding the health and security of Western Australians with our innovative Sentinel technology that has been developed entirely in our own State,” Mr Watt said in a statement.

Avicena won start-up of the year awards at the 2021 National iAwards in Melbourne and at the Incite Awards for WA in July.