CIQURA
Ciqura is committed to eradicating disease through early, fast, and accessible diagnostics; leveraging telehealth and existing treatments to complement and facilitate
Why Start With HCV?
HCV is the most common bloodborne infection in the US and a major public health challenge despite the availability of curative treatment for more than a decade. An estimated 2.2–3.5 million Americans are currently living with HCV. Approximately 70,000 new infections and 100,000 newly reported chronic infections occur annually. Yet nearly half of infected individuals are unaware of their status because HCV is often asymptomatic for years, delaying diagnosis until severe liver damage has occurred.
Untreated HCV can lead to significant morbidity and mortality, including cirrhosis, liver failure, hepatocellular carcinoma, liver transplantation, and death. While highly effective treatments can cure HCV, early diagnosis is critical; treatment of advanced disease imposes substantial healthcare costs, with lifetime costs exceeding $200,000 per untreated patient compared with approximately $20,000 for earlier-stage intervention.
A major unmet need is access to screening. Although universal adult screening is recommended, approximately half of U.S. adults remain unscreened due to barriers including cost, healthcare access, stigma, inconvenience, and delays associated with clinic- or laboratory-based testing. These disparities disproportionately affect rural, underserved, and high-risk populations. Ciqura is designing a solution to address this gap by enabling rapid, clinically connected at-home screening linked to confirmatory diagnosis and treatment access.