Pfizer Pays Almost $120 Million For App That Detects COVID From a Cough (newatlas.com) 39
Pharma giant Pfizer has shelled out nearly $120 million to acquire a small Australian company claiming to have developed a smartphone app that can accurately diagnose COVID-19 by analyzing the sound of a cough. New Atlas reports: For around a decade small Australian digital healthcare company ResApp has been working on developing an algorithm that can diagnose respiratory illnesses by simply studying the sound of a patient's cough. Initially the system was trained to diagnose pneumonia, but by 2019 the researchers had shown the technology could effectively distinguish asthma, croup and bronchiolitis. When the pandemic struck in 2020 the team unsurprisingly quickly pivoted to incorporate COVID-19 diagnoses into its cough-recognition technology. By early 2022 the first data from a pilot trial testing the COVID algorithm revealed impressively good results.
The trial found the system could accurately detect 92% of positive COVID cases solely from the sound of a cough. The system also recorded 80% specificity, meaning only two out of every 10 people screened received false positive results. Soon after ResApp revealed these results pharma giant Pfizer began circling, initially offering around $65 million for the technology. Now, in a formal acquisition announcement, a deal has been finalized for Pfizer to buy ResApp for a massive $116 million.
The trial found the system could accurately detect 92% of positive COVID cases solely from the sound of a cough. The system also recorded 80% specificity, meaning only two out of every 10 people screened received false positive results. Soon after ResApp revealed these results pharma giant Pfizer began circling, initially offering around $65 million for the technology. Now, in a formal acquisition announcement, a deal has been finalized for Pfizer to buy ResApp for a massive $116 million.
I'm sure it was just to be helpful (Score:1)
When the pandemic struck in 2020 the team unsurprisingly quickly pivoted to incorporate COVID-19 diagnoses into its cough-recognition technology.
What do you think went through their minds:
"Hey, we have this cool tech that could help the world cope with the pandemic"
-or-
"Hey, we too could make out like a bandit off the pandemic!"
Guess they managed to pulled it off belatedly...
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Are you Communist?
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Why can't it be both? Are you Communist?
For that matter if its both then they are communist ..
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Maybe Pfizer thinks this can potentially be improved upon. But if I were a fo
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This could be a very valuable if it could be turned into an app that makes you phone notify you when someone nearby sounds like they have COVID.
In the mean time I've been trying various masks. The FFP2 ones seem to strike a decent balance between breathability, protection and comfort. Masks and keeping as far away from anyone with a cough as possible.
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FFP2 is a standard for non-reusable half masks, i.e. disposable facemasks that only protect your breathing and not your eyes. FFP2 requires the mask to filter at least 94% of particles, and also only allow a maximum of 8% leakage. Such masks are suitable for protection from airborne viruses like COVID.
FFP2 is equivalent to the US K95 and Chinese KN95. The Chinese masks tend to be smaller and a better fit for women and Asian people, if you are in the market.
FFP3 is 99% filtration and less than 2% leakage, so
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This could be a very valuable if it could be turned into an app that makes you phone notify you when someone nearby sounds like they have COVID.
Yes, because what we really need is another tool that naturally divides society by helping to identify the 'unsavory types' that deserve to be shunned. /s
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This could be a very valuable if it could be turned into an app that makes you phone notify you when someone nearby sounds like they have COVID.
Yes, because what we really need is another tool that naturally divides society by helping to identify the 'unsavory types' that deserve to be shunned. /s
People coughing and spreading contagions in public could use a little shunnin.
If there is anything people should have learned in the last few years it is to stay home when you are sick.
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Not to mention that for those who do, different variants appear to predominantly affect different parts of the respiratory system. IIRC the original strain and earlier variants preferred the deep lung, whereas omicron prefers the upper respiratory system. That's got to affect the sound of the cough, which means that an app which was showing good results in early 2022 is probably not very good at identifying the currently predominant strains.
Re:I'm sure it was just to be helpful (Score:5, Interesting)
While the home test you can get now is better, this app is far less invasive. The home test has you sticking little sticks deep up your nose, which is not a pleasant experience at all, and you sometimes worry people are getting negative tests because they didn't stick it up far enough because well, it's not comfortable at all.
Then there's the playing around with the buffer solution and waiting time and in the end it's a rather fiddly thing. Sure it's easy and it's cheap, but there are a lot of bits that are unpleasant and sensitive.
Compare that to this app, where all you have to do is let it listen to a cough. This is far less intrusive and far easier to do for the average person to do.
And you know what? You can follow up - if the cough test says you potentially have COVID, you can try the rapid test and see.
Easier tests can be done more often - perhaps a harried mother can see what her kid's cough is about before heading to the doctor for a proper diagnosis - or just not head to the doctor at all and just isolate.
Re: I'm sure it was just to be helpful (Score:2)
Why improve? More positives - real or false - is more paxlovid sales.
A better strategy would be to find a way to call false positives "pre-covid" patients.
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Money is what motivates all for-profit companies to do what they do. Why is that a bad thing? We all work...to make money.
If a company makes a profit for doing a good thing, more power to them! On the other hand, if they are greedy and charge unreasonable prices for what they do, that's another thing. But a desire for profit does not equal greed.
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The App only works properly in Australia (Score:1)
Re:The App only works properly in Australia (Score:5, Funny)
For everywhere else while coughing into your phone you have to stand on your head.
You could just turn your phone upside-down instead.
Re: The App only works properly in Australia (Score:4, Funny)
And then you have to dunk the phone in alcohol...
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I know you are joking but we actually have a really good way to disinfect stuff now. 222nm UV light. Unlike higher wavelengths, 222nm is safe for humans. It kills viruses like COVID in the air and on surfaces, but doesn't penetrate the skin or the outer eye.
Maker Naomi Wu built a wearable device that hangs around the neck and shines light upwards in front of the face. I've been trying to find a source of 222nm bulbs to build something similar, but they are very expensive. It seems that Chinese manufacturers
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Has Maker Wu discovered that there's a free UV light source anyone can access just by going outside?
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Has Maker Wu discovered that there's a free UV light source anyone can access just by going outside?
I don't think the targeted customer group dares to go outside. These days lots of money are to be made by selling amulets to the never bigger share of people with anxiety disorders.
What's next? (Score:2)
Detect bowel cancer by a fart?
For only 250 millions.
20% false positives / 8% false negatives (Score:2)
Working only from the sound of a cough, that's amazing. Of course, it's also laboratory conditions, so real results won e as good.
However, is it good enough to be useful? Out of a million sick people, you overlook 80000, andmisdiahnose 200000. I don't think that's useful...
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The statistics will likely be further affected by the prevalence of COVID as compared to other diseases. If 60% of your test subjects have COVID, 20% have a cold, and 20% have allergies, the numbers might seem more favorable than if 20% of your test subjects have COVID, 60% have a cold, and 20% have allergies.
Seems like snakeoil (Score:3)
" effectively distinguish asthma, croup and bronchiolitis."..
These types of coughs are all very different and telling an allergic reaction vs chronic disease vs a virus immune response makes sense.
But a COVID cough is not going to be different from a cough due to the flu, a bad cold, or any other similar respiratory virus.
I can't see any realistic way to determine a specific virus by sound, the whole idea is ridiculous.
What's more, many people who get COVID do not develop a cough at all. I never had a cough, it affected my nose.
Surprised Phizer fell for this.
Re:Seems like snakeoil (Score:5, Funny)
COVID specfically or any upper respiratory virus? (Score:2)
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You can't. Basically, the app can detect whether a cough is a particular sickness cough or a reflex cough, any parent but especially any doctor with a stethoscope can do the same. It cannot diagnose which disease you have solely on sound, just like a doctor can't, but you can make better guesses based on the sounds of the cough (whether there is a "rattle", whether it's deeper or higher pitched).
It is also incredibly likely that the whole study was tainted since COVID is so prevalent (nearly 100% of the pop
No probe? (Score:2)
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And this time nobody cares about how Pfizer is dominating the pharmaceuticle sector?
Well let's see...have they actually passed that pretend-legislation that bans US Representatives from partaking in (insider) stock trading?
Nope. And they likely never will.
I believe that answers your question.
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And this time nobody cares about how Pfizer is dominating the pharmaceuticle sector?
Pfizer is third, but only a bit over half the size of the largest - Johnson & Johnson. https://www.visualcapitalist.c... [visualcapitalist.com]
Medical apps; the new snake oil. (Score:4, Interesting)
So, now we're going to "detect" COVID from a cough? What's next, detecting cancer with a belch? So much for burping contests.
If COVID will eventually go the way of the flu, then it's rather senseless to go to this extreme. Only reason to do so, is the same reason many companies are developing "detection" apps to "assist" you (and your wallet) to the nearest profit center.
I truly fear how many trillions will be scammed from hypochondriacs when a drop of blood taken from a $99 WiFi-enabled sensor on your bathroom counter, starts rattling off (highly profitable) disease and (highly profitable) ailment, knowing that stress also causes problems.
Yes. It's quite obvious that medicine has been infected with Greed. Sad.
Turn (Score:1)
Glad I sold my Pfizer stock (Score:1)