The world’s first saliva-based pregnancy testing kit ‘SaliStick’ has hit the shelves of the United Kingdom market. This revolutionary pregnancy testing kit is made by Salignostics, which is an Israel-based startup.
This kit is distributed by Abingdon Health, which is a leading British manufacturer and a leading developer of high-quality rapid lateral flow tests across all industry sectors. In February this year, Salignostics and Abingdon Health signed a distribution to launch the test kits in the UK and Ireland. This testing kit has got Europe’s CE marking and has also got approval by the regulatory bodies of the UK. SaliStick is now waiting to get approval from United States FDA.
SaliStick is based on groundbreaking technology which can detect pregnancy hormone β-hCG in saliva. This kit can give results in under 10 minutes, depending on the amount of pregnancy hormone in the saliva offering early detection. This offers women a new and improved user experience with mobility as it can be used anywhere at any time, which traditional urine-based test doesn’t offer.
While talking about the distribution agreement, the CEO of Abingdon Health, Chris Yates, said, “We are delighted to be distributing Salistick in the UK and Ireland, the first saliva pregnancy test to be launched worldwide. This exciting innovation offers women the opportunity to test for pregnancy in a cleaner, more straightforward and easier way and is a long-overdue development in the pregnancy testing market. We are excited to be partnering with Salignostics, and we look forward to continuing to work with them to bring innovative self-test products to market”.
The Co-Founder and Deputy CEO of Salignostics, Dr Guy Krief, “We are excited to join with Abingdon Health to bring our Salistick saliva-based pregnancy test to consumers in the UK and Ireland. We believe that Abingdon Health is the right partner to bring this revolutionary product to pharmacy shelves throughout the region, allowing for easy and accessible pregnancy tests for women”.
Krief said that the technology used in this pregnancy testing kit is based on the COVID detection kit, in an interview with Times of Israel. He stated, “It is deeply encouraging that technology that was honed and developed to help us deal with one of the worst pandemics is able to be developed further to help contribute to help and wellness for women and families all over the world,”
Professor Aron Palmon, the co-founder of Salignostics, spoke about how saliva is vital for quick diagnosis of numerous medical issues. He stated, “Saliva is the key to rapid diagnostics for a variety of medical reasons. It is the only non-invasive, easy and hygienic means to detect hormones, viruses and even diseases”. He added, “With SaliStick, we leverage the powerful diagnostics abilities we have been able to create from analysing saliva. This product completely removes the need for blood and urine samples when testing for pregnancy”.
The usage of SaliStick is very simple. The users just have to place a foam-tipped stick in their mouth like a thermometer to collect the saliva sample. Then that stick should be transferred to a plastic tube given in the kit. The tube contains chemicals which will react with the salvia to detect the pregnancy hormone. This process of detection takes less than 10 minutes, and sometimes, it gives results below 3 minutes, depending on the amount of pregnancy hormone.
Salignostics is a research and development company focusing on the development of saliva-based rapid diagnostics tests (RDT), utilising a lateral flow immunoassay platform. The company’s platform is comprised of a ‘toolbox of technologies’ which amplify saliva as a detectable body fluid by overcoming different chemical and biological saliva-related obstacles. Implementation of these technologies transforms saliva from a non-detectable to a detectable body fluid.
