While headlines tell of large divestitures, with diagnostic companies selling off noncore or underperforming business lines, some companies are boldly expanding their assay portfolios into clinical diagnostics. DTET has studied the business cases of two diagnostics start-ups that have plans to adapt their platform outside of their core business and move into clinical diagnostics and health care. Invisible Sentinel (Philadelphia), established itself in 2006 by enhancing food safety testing with its rapid molecular diagnostics. As of late March, the Association of Analytical Communities, the global standardization organization for the food industry, certified Sentinel’s Veriflow assays for salmonella, listeria, and campylobacter. The Veriflow platform uses vertical flow technology to enable testing in food products and various surfaces in contact with food during preparation and packaging. The food industry, a $1 billion testing market, provided an “interesting opportunity to bring the power of molecular diagnostics—its sensitivity and its accuracy—but to make it more accessible,” says Benjamin Pascal, co-founder and chief business officer of Invisible Sentinel. “Veriflow makes molecular diagnostics accessible with easy-to-read results, and it eliminates the need for capital equipment and maintenance so that it empowers the bulk of the food industry.” The pressing need for improved testing to ensure food […]