NIH https://sbir.nih.gov, provides over $1.2 billion each year to small businesses through the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program to provide funds for small businesses to commercialize basic science and technology and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program to increase business collaborations with research institutions.
Through the two programs, NIH provides funding to help small businesses improve public health. Many of the companies that received funding from NIH’s Small Business Programs are now using their expertise and resources to respond to COVID-19.
For example, BioMedomics https://www.biomedomics.com, CEO Frank Wang said, “When the pandemic hit, he felt a responsibility to use the company’s resources to develop a rapid blood test for the novel coronavirus”. The company was well-equipped to act because in 2015 they had received Small Business Program funds to design a rapid point-of-care blood test for diagnosing sickle cell disease.
BioMedomics currently sells their rapid COVID-19 blood test to customers in around 40 countries. The company recently teamed up with the medical technology company BD in hopes of distributing the test in the U.S. pending FDA approval.
Also, Seattle-based Adaptive Biotechnologies https://www.adaptivebiotech.com, responded to the pandemic by using their immune medicine platform to design diagnostics via a partnership with Microsoft and developed therapeutics with the biopharmaceutical company Amgen.
Today, the company in working to develop a more reliable test by mapping the complex way the immune system responds to the novel coronaviruses. Currently, the company is developing a test to verify cellular immunity against COVID-19.
Eric Von Hofe, President, NuGenerex Immuno-Oncology https://nugenecexxio.com, reports that the NIH Small Business Program funding laid the foundation for the company to respond to COVID-19. The company is developing a coronavirus vaccine with hopes to start clinical trials in 3-5 months.
Lastly, the NIH-funded company Sylvatica https://www.sylvaticabio.com, has found a creative way to join the pandemic response. They are building a library of human tissues using cryopreservation technology. The hope is that the library which includes infected lung and eventually heart, blood vessel, and brain tissue will be a resource for research, testing vaccines, and treatments.