One of the ongoing treatment challenges for providers is the ability to determine if infections are either bacterial or viral. Their presentation can be similar, and traditional testing can be time consuming. Of course, clinicians want to be sure patients are getting some type of intervention, so broad-spectrum antibiotics can often be prescribed in these cases.
“It [the MeMed BV test] tries to solve the following seemingly simple problem: a patient, a kid or adult comes to urgent care or to an ED [emergency department] with a suspected acute infection. Broadly, we’re trying to discern the etiologies of a bacterial or viral infection. Do we treat or not treat with antibiotics?” said MeMed’s co-founder and CEO Eran Eden, PhD.
Eden’s company developed a novel assay, the MeMed BV test, that can distinguish between bacterial and viral infections in 15 minutes. The test received a FDA 510(k) clearance in 2023 and also has the European CE Mark.1
Eden says the test itself is a blood test that measures three proteins, and integrates them into a score. “They are measured and then computationally integrated into a score between zero and 100; the higher the score, the higher the likelihood of a bacterial infection.”
MeMed shared results of 3 studies of the MeMed BV test which demonstrated the following:
- 63% reduction in unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions (real-world study of 3,920 patients)
- 70% of previously missed bacterial infections correctly identified, leading to significantly fewer hospitalizations (7.8% vs. 30.3%)
- Outperformed standard biomarkers like procalcitonin (PCT) in distinguishing bacterial vs. viral infections
- Lower healthcare costs, especially in managing community-acquired pneumonia2
Eden mentions the multiple challenges of pathogen testing. “The first is that even if you use a multiplex PCR, you’re only going to put your hands on a microorganism on 30 to 40% of the cases; 60% of the cases there is no microorganism, and you still have to treat so that’s 1 gap we’re trying to solve,” Eden said. “The second thing is inaccessible infections. So you can apply, say, a SARS-CoV-2 or strep test in cases of pharyngitis. But what about otitis, bronchitis, and pneumonia? The immune system circulates throughout the entire body, so it allows you to identify these infections or the source of infection in these inaccessible infection sites. Third is the issue of colonization. So let’s say you identify a virus or bacteria, some of them have very high prevalence, especially in kids, so mere detection does not apply causality, which is confusing, leading to overuse and underuse of antibiotics. Another element here is the element of super infections. So you identify an influenza, there’s about 10% to 20% probability of bacterial super infection on top of that. So all these elements and obviously time—you want to get results fast—it’s taking this simple problem and making it really hard to discern in real time.”
He says these factors lead to uncertainty about the nature of the infection and they are trying to reduce that with the use of these newer generation of screening tools. He says screening can greatly aid in antibiotic stewardship and address the global issue of antimicrobial resistance.
“When you talk about reduction of overuse, I would like to maybe broaden the discussion to say it’s both…depending on the over prescribed or nonbacterial infection for which it does not provide any benefit,” Eden said. “But there’s also an element of underuse where you should prescribe and you’re not prescribing…The BV test has started to show utility in reducing this uncertainty, both reducing overuse of antibiotics, but at the same time doing it in a safe manner, but also reducing cases where there’s missed bacterial infections.”
