By 2030, the Australian government aims to eliminate HIV transmission. An ambitious goal, but in line with the country’s declining HIV rates. Over the past ten years, instances of HIV have all but halved. 

But there’s still work to be done. On May 14, the Australian government announced its 2024-2025 federal budget with a focus on healthcare for people with HIV, women and rural communities. 

Through $43.9 million in funding, people with or at risk of HIV will receive support via better prevention, testing, workforce training and information. With the expanded national HIV self-test mail-out program, more people in at-risk groups will get free HIV self-test kits. People around Australia will get wider access to HIV testing by extending the South Australia-based HIV testing vending machine pilot to every state and territory.

Right now, medical diagnostics company Atomo Diagnostics (ASX: AT1) supplies the only HIV Self-Test included on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) and has been instrumental in implementing these pilot programs, which are now being scaled nationally through funding support from the Federal Government. 

Atomo anticipates that a significant portion of the funding committed to these expanded HIV Self-Test programs will be used to procure Atomo HIV tests. 

Atomo CEO John Kelly said, “We are delighted to see the government recognise the critical need to ensure HIV Self-Test availability across the community and fund the rapid expansion of the national HIV self-test mail-out program and the HIV self-test vending machine pilots. Both have proven extremely successful in increasing testing rates among groups not currently testing via healthcare facility-based services.” 

Atomo is an Australian-based medical device company that supplies integrated rapid diagnostic test (RDT) devices to the global diagnostic market. In Q3 FY24, Atomo’s revenue was $526k, comprising HIV sales, OEM cassette sales and initial development fees. This brought YTD revenue to $2.45m, an increase of 25% compared to the same period FY23. 

This budget boost comes as the Australian Government’s HIV Taskforce recognised the critical role HIV self-testing plays in enabling Australia to reach its HIV targets in November last year. In keeping with that, Atomo will work with the Government and other stakeholders to ensure access to quality HIV self-tests is not a barrier to Australia reaching its 2030 goals.

Atomo has been making progress with its HIV self-tests. Last month, Atomo secured purchase orders from Viatris Healthcare for about $570,000 worth of HIV Self-Tests, manufactured by Atomo under the Mylan brand for supply to several Low- and Middle-Income Countries. The Newfoundland-branded Atomo HIV Self-Test secured regulatory approval for supply in Colombia, with the first order including 30,000 tests. 

In Australia, besides getting a leg up from the federal budget, Atomo has also teamed up with Grindr, a dating app for the LGTBQ+ community, to improve access to these kits. 

In 2022, about 30,000 Australians were estimated to be living with HIV, with most undergoing treatment. With greater money pumped into healthcare and accessibility to these self-test kits, early detection, treatment, and well, complete elimination would become easier.