As I wrote in the summer, the Battle of Britain was won with the newly invented RADAR (#overstatement?). In the war against COVID-19, our RADARs are diagnostics technologies which have taken first-page place in daily news: how many tests per day, turnaround time, rapid tests vs central lab tests, and even the possibility of testing at airports or sport events.

The powerful core of molecular diagnostics, a set of tools that reads the genetic material of the target pathogen, provides a mighty RADAR to healthcare providers across the world.

Molecular diagnostics has been a forte at Ximedica for many years, and even before the pandemic started we were already working with several companies on diagnostics systems. These companies were seeking to push the limits and availability of PCR at point of care and central laboratory. During the year, with renewed interest from the markets, we helped some of them pivot their technologies to rapid testing systems for COVID-19.

More work will be needed in the coming decades. National Geographic’s November issue strikingly describes the root cause of recent pandemics. Ancient natural environments kept viral pathogens safely secluded until now. However, deforestation in recent decades has pushed those pathogens into our cities. The next pandemics will emerge from that deforestation of habitats and each battle will be won with mighty weapons for detection, novel vaccines and therapeutics. All to start again every few years.

And hence the diagnostics industry needs to adapt. In only a matter of months COVID-19 has spread to as much as 10% of the World’s population, as per WHO estimates. Acceleration of events requires acceleration of response . In the past the diagnostics industry could slowly design their next portfolio of instruments using internal teams. These would replace obsolete instruments often after fifteen years or longer from launch, and take as much time to prepare the next versions.

In-house engineering teams are vital for the IVD industry as they are the experts in the life cycle of their portfolio. At the same time outsourced design consultancies are the real experts in fast-paced development. Fast response to the next pandemics is needed and it is companies like Ximedica who are positioned to turnover novel designs at break-neck speeds and accelerate their route to market.

Outsourcing of engineering design is not an option, it is now a must (#hyperbole? read above and decide) for the diagnostics industry, for established companies that want to stay relevant and for newcomers to avoid missing the tide of events.