Aussie tech startup acquired by Pfizer for $179 million after developing an app that can ‘hear’ COVID-19

Pfizer has acquired a Brisbane tech startup for a whopping $179 million after studies showed the software could identify a COVID-19 infection from a person’s cough, in what has been described as one of the most exciting biotech deals to come from university research.

ASX-listed ResApp developed the smartphone application using an advanced diagnostic software that was designed by Associate Professor Udantha Abeyratne and his team from the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the University of Queensland.

UniQuest, the university’s commercial research arm, licensed the ResApp technology in September 2014, and created a startup called ResApp Health Ltd to take the software to the market.

ResApp Health has gone on to raise more than $29 million to fund the technology’s development.

The technology is diagnostic, recording and analysing the cough of a person — though it also takes into account self-reported symptoms like a runny nose and a fever too — and returning a positive or negative result within just one minute.

The company caught the eye of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer when a study showed the app has a 92% rate of success in identifying a COVID-positive patient among symptomatic patients.

The technology, if proven to satisfy ongoing clinical trials, could eventually slash the necessity for PCR and rapid antigen tests used worldwide, according to the biotech startup.

In the meantime, ResApp is already approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration and has been used at a federal government-funded COVID-19 respiratory clinic in Brisbane in 2020 with success.

Dr Evan Jones, director of Health Hub Doctors Morayfield and adjunct Associate Professor of the University of the Sunshine Coast, says he’d found ResApp to be a useful tool for triaging respiratory patients.

“Our clinicians have found the test very useful in both confirming their suspected diagnosis as well as identifying cases otherwise not detected by a physical examination,” he said.

University of Queensland vice-chancellor Professor Deborah Terry was thrilled by the mammoth acquisition, which finalised on Monday, calling it a win for the company, university and researchers.

“The value of translating research into new point of care diagnostics to improve healthcare on a global scale cannot be understated,” Terry said.

But the app isn’t limited to detecting COVID-19 cases. It can also determine whether a person has asthma, pneumonia, bronchiolitis, croup and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — indeed a clinical study of 91 patients by The University of Queensland showed a 96% and 90% accuracy for the diagnosis of pneumonia and asthma respectively.

The research software was made possible by grant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation more than a decade ago, and driven by Abeyratne’s vision to diagnose pulmonary diseases all over the world.

“I hope they will be able to diagnose killer diseases like pneumonia in very remote communities in Africa and Asia because they don’t have access to sophisticated hospitals,” he told the ABC.

UniQuest CEO Dean Moss says he had watched the growth of ResApp “keenly” and was looking forward to the future.

“This is one of the most exciting Australian biotech deals to come out of university research,” Moss said.

“It’s rewarding that the company’s technological breakthroughs have attracted this significant international backing.”