Australian company developing test to tell if COVID vaccine is working

As confusion reigns over how long COVID vaccines will last, a local company is developing a simple test that will show if a booster is needed.

A home blood test that will check whether the COVID-19 vaccine is still working or if a person needs a booster dose is being developed by an Aussie company.

Trajan Scientific and Medical hopes to have the test ready by the end of this year.

“The role we would hope it would play is to be able to look at vaccinated people over time and ascertain is the immune response deteriorating, or is it maintaining its protection against infection,” Trajan CEO Stephen Tomisich told News Corp Australia.

Trajan CEO Stephen Tomisich. Trajan is developing a home blood test what will check whether the COVID-19 is still working. Picture: Supplied

University of NSW epidemiologist Professor Mary-Louise McLaws said the “exciting” project could spell then end of quarantine if it was used in conjunction with rapid antigen tests.

“We would know yes, you’ve been vaccinated, your rapid antigen test shows negative, and you have the antibodies to say that you are safe, it would be a ticket to home,” she told News Corp Australia.

The company which is backed by former Australian rugby union captain John Eales is working with a South African company Synexa Life Sciences.

Synexa has developed a COVID-19 antibody test it is hoped will determine whether you still have vaccine protection from the virus.

Trajan has developed a device called Hemapen which captures tiny drops of blood and dries them so they can be sent off for testing.

Synexa recently published test results showing blood microsamples collected using Trajan’s Hemapen were as accurate as those collected through traditional clinic based blood tests when measuring antibodies following infection with the virus that causes COVID-19.

Trajan has also has just purchased a Canberra based blood testing company My Health Test which it hopes will be able to do the pathology testing.

Trajan CEO Stephen Tomisich told News Corp Australia he was hoping that by the end of the year people will be able to prick their finger, draw a small amount of blood and send it through the mail for testing to check on their COVID-19 protection.

“If everything goes to plan then it would probably be at the end of the year before we will be able to offer that sort of service but we’re a long way from that today,” he said.

It is still unknown how long the COVID-19 vaccines will protect people and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said a few weeks ago people will “likely” need a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated.

It’s possible people will need to get vaccinated against the coronavirus annually, he said.

Early this month Pfizer confirmed that their vaccines was still 91.3 per cent effective six months after the second dose.

Moderna produced evidence it was still 94 per cent effective six months following the second dose.

The COVID-19 test pen used to see if the vaccine is still working. Picture: Supplied

However, the US Centre for Disease Control reported recently a tiny percentage, 5,800 of the 77 million Americans who had been fully vaccinated, caught COVID-19 anyway.

Some became seriously ill and 74 people died, 396 of those who got infected after they were vaccinated required hospitalisation.

The COVID-19 antibodies Trajan hopes to test won’t tell the whole story about your immunity.

Our immune systems also have another line of defence against viruses called B and T cells which remain long after antibody levels dwindle.

When they encounter the same virus in the future they can work to fight it off.