Pfizer pays USD 116M for app that detects Covid from a cough

Pharma giant Pfizer has shelled out nearly USD 120 million to acquire a small Australian company that has developed a smartphone app which claims to accurately diagnose Covid-19 by analysing the sound of a cough.

ResApp, the Australian digital healthcare company, has been working on developing an algorithm to diagnose respiratory illnesses by studying the sound of a patient’s cough for about a decade.

The algorithm of ResApp was originally trained to identify pneumonia in patients, but by 2019, researchers had demonstrated that the technology could successfully differentiate between asthma, bronchiolitis, and croup.

ResApp team rapidly changed course to add Covid-19 diagnoses into their cough-recognition algorithm when the pandemic hit in 2020. The initial data from a pilot trial of the algorithm in 2022 showed remarkably successful results in detecting Covid-19 in patients, as per a Techtimes report.

The trial results demonstrated that the system could accurately identify 92 percent of Covid positive cases just by listening to the sound of coughing. It also showed an 80 percent specificity rate, which means that only 2 two out of every 10 patients screened had false positive results.

Pfizer started looking for an opportunity to get the technology after ResApp made these findings public.

The pharma giant approached with an initial offer of about USD 65 million for the technology. However, currently a deal has been reached for Pfizer to acquire ResApp for a staggering USD 116 million, as per a formal purchase announcement.

Pfizer representative said in a statement that the early results of the technology were encouraging, and that the agreement increases the Pfizer’s presence in the field of digital health.

The ResApp team hopes that Pfizer’s acquisition will enable the technology to develop and become extensively used even in the remote regions of the world to help people. CNBCTV18