By Chris Wack

GBS Inc. shares were up 52%, to $4.48, after the company said it has been awarded a $4.7 million, Australian Federal Government scientific grant to fund the build out of a biosensor-manufacturing facility.

The company said this project has been identified as one of six National Manufacturing Priorities identified by the Australian government under its Modern Manufacturing Strategy.

The medical products priority grant, from the Australian federal government's Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources' Modern Manufacturing Initiative will support the establishment of an Australian high tech medical device manufacturing facility to begin scaled production of the Printable Organic Electronic Biosensor technology for the APAC region.

GBS's flagship product, the Saliva Glucose Biosensor, is being developed as a point-of-care test intended to provide people living with diabetes a non-invasive solution to finger-prick blood glucose testing.

The company also plans to commercialize a SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Biosensor rapid point-of-care diagnostic test to monitor exposure and immunity levels in real time in the fight against Covid-19. The SARS-CoV-2 Biosensor is being developed in collaboration with the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

GBS said it believes its manufacturing facility will have capacity to produce an annual supply of 100 million biosensor units for roll-out to primary global commercialization sites in the Asia Pacific region.

Write to Chris Wack at chris.wack@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-08-21 1007ET