Pfizer buys Queensland start-up ResApp for $179m

An Australian university start-up that uses an smartphone to test for Covid-19 has been snapped up by a pharmaceutical giant.

An Australian university start-up has been snapped up by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for an eye-watering $179 million.

The deal, inked in on Monday, has seen the US company acquire ResApp Health Limited, an ASX-listed company born at the University of Queensland.

The company has created an app that can diagnose Covid-19 by analysing a patient’s cough and is 92 per cent accurate, according to early studies.

UQ researchers from the university’s school of IT and Electrical Engineering division, headed by Associate Professor Udantha Abeyratne, developed the technology in Brisbane.

The university’s commercial arm, called UniQuest, licenced the technology to ResApp in September 2014.

Since then, ResApp has raised $29 million to develop the technology and has gone on to be able to diagnose and measure a range of chronic and acute diseases including asthma, pneumonia, bronchiolitis, croup and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

When the pandemic arrived on Australia’s shores two years ago, the firm also focused its efforts on a Covid-19 diagnosis.

The testing software has been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration and also the European Union.

Stream more business news live & on demand with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends 31 October, 2022 >

Associate Professor Udantha Abeyratne is one of the brains of the ground breaking technology.

The app can reportedly deliver a Covid screening testing result in one minute and all that a patient needs is a smartphone.

It can diagnose a patient using acoustic biomarkers and analyses the data with advanced AI models.

The technology also relies on reporting of other symptoms, such as a fever or a sore throat, to help with its diagnosis.

ResApp’s algorithm was built by using cough audio recordings, self-reported symptoms as well as results from Covid-19 PCR test results.

Clinical trials for the app are still continuing.

Rumours of ResApp’s merger have been around since April but the deal was only finalised and announced this week.

An example of someone using the app to diagnose their child’s cough.

In a statement to news.com.au, a Pfizer spokesperson said the ResApp acquisition was a “step” that would “enhance” the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company.

“ResApp’s solutions in respiratory health align well with our own therapeutic areas of focus and help enhance our expertise in digital,” they said.

“As the world becomes more digitally connected, and as respiratory illnesses – including Covid-19 – increasingly threatens the global population, digital apps provide consumers and patients with easy to use, non-invasive and cost-effective ways to detect, suspect and eventually, diagnose respiratory illness.”

UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry added of the merger “The value of translating research into new point of care diagnostics to improve healthcare on a global scale cannot be understated”.

Originally published as Pfizer buys Queensland start-up ResApp for $179m