A test than can detect coronavirus in minutes has been approved in the US

Mar 30, 2020

This article first appeared on Reuters.

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (green) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/Handout via REUTERS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT - RC29RF9I0B4U

The US has more cases than anywhere else in the world. Image: via REUTERS

Carl O'Donnell

Reporter , Reuters

Our Impact

What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on COVID-19?

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how COVID-19 is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

COVID-19

Abbott Laboratories said last week it had won US marketing approval for a rapid diagnostic test.
It plans to begin distributing the test this week - and ramp up production to 50,000 tests per day.
The US has more cases than anywhere else in the world.

Abbott Laboratories has said it won U.S. marketing approval for a diagnostic test for the coronavirus that can deliver results to patients within minutes and be used in physicians offices and urgent care clinics, as well as hospitals.

The United States now has more cases of the coronavirus than any other country, and hospitals have struggled to meet the demand to test thousands of people for the often-deadly virus.

Have you read?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the approval under its Emergency Use Authorization.

Abbott said in a statement that it plans to begin distributing the test next week and will ramp up manufacturing to 50,000 tests per day.

“This is a significant leap forward,” John Frels, vice president of research and development at Abbott, said in an interview with Reuters. “You can get a positive result in five minutes and a negative result in 13 minutes. You can walk into a clinic and literally get results while you are there.”

The portable test will run on Abbott’s ID NOW platform.

Emergency use authorization has been granted for the test. Image: Abbott Laboratories

It is the second test to be approved by the FDA that can be used directly in physicians’ offices and other community healthcare settings and promptly provide results to patients. Last week, the FDA approved a test made by Cepheid that can be used at the point of care.

“The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus,” said Robert Ford, president and chief operating officer at Abbott, in a statement.

Abbott received approval last week for a high volume, automated diagnostic test that can be used in laboratories and said at the time it would immediately distribute 150,000 of the tests around the country.

Between the two platforms, Abbott said it plans to produce 5 million tests per month.

The FDA has been rushing to approve tests for the coronavirus on an emergency basis and has approved others made by companies including Roche Holding AG and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

With the expansion of testing has come a surge in confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.