The inaugural 2015 Health Innovation Challenge Awards have been awarded to a rapid malaria test that can diagnose the disease within 25 minutes using drops of a patient’s urine sample. The test was developed in Nigeria and the prize was awarded by the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN) through the Nigeria Health Innovation Marketplace (NHIM).
The Urine Malaria Test (UMT) is endorsed by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and approved by the National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC). It was developed by Fyodor Biotechnologies and is the first among the five winning innovations from the 2015 Health Innovation Challenge.
The overall performance of the UMT is equivalent to that of the Binax NOW blood test, the only malaria rapid test approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The award given to Fyodor UMT comes with a grant of $100,000 and enrollment in the accelerated programme of the NHIM.
The presentation was done in Lagos at the 2015 Nigeria Health Innovation and Impact Investment Summit.
