"This is the first field saliva test in the world," says Franck Molina. The director of the Montpellier laboratory Sys2Diag (attached to the CNRS) worked for two and a half months with his teams, in the midst of a coronavirus crisis, to develop EasyCov. Hard work to offer "in record time" an alternative to the current virological tests of Covid-19, longer and more intrusive, with the swab introduced into the nose.
Created with a consortium of researchers (CHU, SkillCell, Inovie), EasyCov will be launched in France on June 19. Its principle is simple: the patient takes a drop of saliva himself under his tongue with a pipette (thus keeping his distance from the caregiver present during the test). The sample is then collected, placed in a tube and analyzed on site using a portable housing system. Less than an hour later, a colorimetric result appears to indicate or not the presence of Covid-19.
"This allows for massive, rapid, painless and more reactive tests," assures Franck Molina. The researcher, who "always tries to innovate", describes his solution as "a safety net" for many audiences: airport passengers, border travelers, professions exposed to the virus such as dentists, firefighters ...
Interested football and rugby leagues
After screening, the results are read using a manual scanner. The analyzes are thus fed back into a secure medical database reserved for health authorities.
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"We are proud to be able to contribute, with our digital skills, to this tremendous collaboration between public and private, which also marks the excellence of French research", smiles Christophe Carniel, director of the Montpellier company Vogo, in charge of digital interface of the project.
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Thanks to its off-site biometric portal and its flexible logistics, EasyCov can be quickly deployed on a large scale: "The production capacity of around 200,000 kits per week (of 35 tests each) is now assured and could be rapidly expanded" , announces the partner laboratory SkillCell.
The price of the test should be around 40 euros according to the providers. In a second step, it could be covered by health insurance if the steps in this direction are successful. Many EasyCov orders have already been placed across Europe. Because, in addition to detecting the patients to isolate them and break the chains of transmission of the virus, massive screening could also ultimately favor the resumption of large gatherings.
In France, "negotiations with the football and rugby leagues are very advanced," says Christophe Carniel. Although this still only concerns training sessions and in camera matches, the idea of seeing the stadiums filling up again seems therefore also conceivable ... Supporting tests, if necessary.
