At-Home Testing Company Cor Crowdfunding for Commercialization

By Lori Solomon, Editor, Diagnostic Testing & Emerging Technologies

At-home testing company Cor (San Francisco) has taken to online crowdfunding to commercialize its blood chemistry device. As of April 6, the company had pledges on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo totaling more than $101,000 from more than 500 backers, which was more than two times the company’s goal.

The company calls its Cor platform a “general wellness product” with laboratory testing accuracy. Cor uses a fine needle to sample surface-level blood from anywhere on the arm, which the company says is quick and painless. The disposable cartridge is placed in the Cor Reader, which uses patented vibrational spectroscopic technology.  Using cloud-based analysis results are available within five minutes.

Cor is initially focused on heart health and tests for cholesterol (HDL, LDL, and total), fasting blood glucose, inflammation (using the fibrinogen marker), and triglycerides, which the company refers to as ‘indicators.’  The Cor app reports on overall health trends of these indicators. Additionally the report delivers “personalized and actionable health insights,” by providing customized recommendations on diet, supplements, relaxation, and exercise. These insights, the company says, are built from cloud processing and big data. Its “learning system” uses individuals’ results, the company’s medical advisory board, and data from the Cor online community.

“The accuracy is similar to that of lab testing, but we are not looking to replace lab testing,” the company says.

Cor was founded by Bob Messerschmidt, who architected the heart rate sensors for the Apple Watch. The Cor platform retails for $598 and comes with an initial 3-month cartridge supply for Indiegogo purchases. Additional cartridge subscriptions cost $10 per month for four cartridges, as the company recommends weekly testing. Cor anticipates initial delivery to Indiegogo backers in October.

The company says that it completed a clinical validation study that has been submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed medical journal. Cor says that its system was compared to a standard cardiac panel run in non-hospitalized participants over a 4-week period and showed “a high degree of accuracy.”

While the company is awaiting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration final guidance on low-risk general wellness products, it does not believe the blood testing platform will be subject to extensive regulation.

“We are making only general wellness claims,” the company says. “We view Cor as a tracker, much like a FitBit or an AppleWatch or a bathroom scale. … Such products are low-risk since they are not providing medical claims or guidance.”