Since February, before the rapidly spreading coronavirus had been declared a global pandemic, GeneIQ has been focusing nearly all of its efforts on fighting the spread of COVID-19.
Now, the local molecular diagnostics company is looking to further that effort with the launch of a new four-in-one PCR nasal swab test, which can detect COVID-19, two types of the Influenza virus and the common cold. And as hospitalization rates in the region reach higher, GeneIQ is looking to help more in the community get tested by rolling it out its own testing site at its lab facilities in The Colony.
“I’m sure we’ve all experienced this… we’re in the midst of a pandemic and you know you have a sore throat or you have the sniffles or a small cough, it’s a scary predicament,” Frank Howard, founder and CEO at GeneIQ, told NTX Inno. “Given the fact that fever, cough and sore throats are so pervasive with all of these… with the cold, flu and COVID, if we’re going to swab, maybe it’s not COVID, but it’d be good to know that it’s the flu or the common cold. We’re running the test to give the physician all the more information to handle that accordingly. It’s really a no-brainer, in my opinion.”
GeneIQ started hosting a popup drive-thru testing location earlier this month and plans to make it a permanent fixture starting in early January. Howard said he sees part of the company’s mission to help out the community. And to do so, the testing site will free to frontline workers and first responders, and non-insured, symptomatic people can get tested for free.
Howard also noted GeneIQ’s nasal swab test is non-invasive, needing to be inserted only about half an inch, which can be less painful than the nasopharyngeal test many are used to. For those who would prefer nothing going up their nose, the company also just received validation for its four-in-one and COVID-specific tests.
“We just felt that No. 1, we have a great location. It’s close to the highway, and we want to serve not only the local community but the local frontline individuals,” Howard said. “It’s a component of giving back to the community that we're happy to do.”
The work GeneIQ is doing locally is part of the broader work it has been doing across the country. With the ability to process about 10,000 tests per day, the company has partnered with hundreds of long-term care facilities, health practices and municipalities, including a contract to provide testing for Arizona’s Maricopa County.
The reason GeneIQ has been able to provide so much testing capabilities across the U.S. stems from a pivot the company near the beginning of the year. Before the virus had yet to spread to the U.S. border, Howard decided to focus the company’s efforts on COVID-19.
Previously, GeneIQ was focused on providing pharmacogenomic and infectious disease testing capabilities for other respiratory and urinary diseases since its launch in 2018. The company has landed about $3 million in outside funding to date, though Howard declined to disclose who its backers are.
In addition to its laboratory facility in The Colony, the company also has a corporate office in Addison.
“It was somewhat shocking for my team, somewhat unexpected,” Howard said. “I just really felt that most other testing would go by the wayside as everyone focused on COVID-19.”
Starting in February, GeneIQ’s then about 10-person team began setting up its lab facilities to become a Biosafety Level 2 lab and got to work validating its instruments. However, seeing a potential bottleneck in getting the supplies it would need as many other companies scrambled to get their hands on the nasopharyngeal test the FDA approved for emergency use early on, Howard decided to go with the less common non-invasive dry swab test, which at the time had yet to receive an Emergency Use Authorization.
“It’s like programming a computer from scratch. It was an undertaking, but it was really gratifying seeing the team come together, understanding we’re in the midst of a pandemic. It was accelerating and it was all hands on deck to basically build a lab in next to no time,” Howard said. “We took a bit of a gamble there and quite frankly, it paid off.”
The decision paid off. The test eventually received the authorization. And in that time, GeneIQ has expanded its team to more than 55 now.
As vaccines for COVID-19 are beginning to be shipped out, eventually, the need for testing will decline. But Howard sees its work continuing with the partners it has made throughout the crisis. The company will eventually return much of its focus to its other verticals. However, Howard said he sees one of those standing out more than others. Due to the pandemic, he said it’s likely that long-term care facilities will start looking at the health care provided on-site as an amenity. That places GeneIQ in a position to deploy its pharmacogenomic technology, which can analyze a person’s DNA to see how it metabolizes medication, meaning facilities could offer customized drug treatments for individuals in their care. GeneIQ also has a cancer genomic test, which works similarly, using DNA to predict a person’s predisposition to certain types of cancer.
“We want to be front and center-right in the heart of that customizing precision medicine protocols for these facilities - a new era of long-term care and assisted living,” Howard said. “I think we’ll make a big difference. We’ll save the government money, make people happy and patients will live a better life, so we’re really excited about that.”
