Aussie-made 3D-printed nasal swabs to help global shortages

MedTech News: An Aussie-made 3D-printed nasal swab has been shown to be as effective as commercially available products, according to the authors of research published today by the Medical Journal of Australia.

“Rapid upscaling of laboratory testing for COVID-19 has led to an acute global shortage of nasal swabs,” wrote the authors from the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne Health, the University of Melbourne, the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Austin Health, 3DMEDitech and the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory.

“There was 100% categorical agreement of SARS-CoV-2 detection from each concentration of mock sample between the Copan Eswab, Kang Jian swabs and 3DMEDiTech ‘Design G’ 3D-printed swabs in the three different transport media,” the authors found. In addition, SARS-CoV-2 was detected at all timepoints, across all swab/media combinations.”

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The local production of swabs may solve supply problems globally, the researchers concluded.

“The widespread availability of 3D-printing capacity may enable many countries to ensure ‘sovereign supply chains’ of swabs, and the scalability of the technology means that, depending on local capacity, thousands of swabs can be produced per day,” the authors wrote.

“This may provide onshore manufacturing solutions to swab shortages in an unpredictable international market for both high- and low-income countries.”

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