Paul Lem News Today

The company’s flagship product, dubbed the Genomadix Cube, is a coffee cup-sized lab-in-a-box that is engineered to extract, amplify and identify genetic material in about an hour.

Barely two months after its rapid COVID-19 test got the green light from Health Canada, Ottawa’s Spartan Bioscience says it is filing for creditor protection and cutting two-thirds of its workforce in the wake of a “higher-than-expected level of inconclusive results” from the device. In a statement to OBJ on Tuesday, the company said it is laying off 61 of its roughly 90 employees and restructuring its operations as it works to “refine the performance of its COVID-19 test in the field.�...

Article content Less than three months after regaining Health Canada approval for its portable COVID-19 testing technology, Spartan Bioscience has again halted shipments of its product after acknowledging an unspecified technical glitch. The result: insolvency and much uncertainty about its future. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Try refreshing your browser, or Test-kit glitch: Spartan declares insolvency, seeks fresh investment or buyer Back to video “This is not a patient...

Ottawa biotech firm predicts revenues will top $200 million this year ​– and only rise from there.

After months of delays, Spartan Bioscience says Health Canada has given it the green light to start selling its rapid COVID-19 test. The Ottawa firm’s Spartan Cube ​– a coffee cup-sized mini test lab that is expected to deliver results in less than an hour ​– initially received federal approval last April. The company calls it “the first truly mobile, rapid PCR test for COVID-19 for the Canadian market.”  But the device was recalled about a month later after Health Canada express...

Spartan resubmits rapid COVID-19 test for Health Canada approval VIDEO SIGN OUT Spartan Bioscience Inc. has resubmitted its rapid COVID-19 test for Health Canada approval, months after the biotech company recalled its product when the regulator raised concerns over its efficacy. The Ottawa-based company said in a statement Monday that its application includes results from clinical studies, which it says were successfully completed in both the U.S. and Canada. “Our team has worked i...