The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for a cheap and fast coronavirus antigen test. The BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card was created by Abbott Laboratories and is capable of providing results in just 15 minutes. Each test, which is about the size of a credit card, costs only $5 and uses the same technology as a pregnancy test, so it does not require any specialized lab equipment
Robert B. Ford, Abbott's president, and CEO said he hopes the tests can become part of "a comprehensive testing solution to help Americans feel more confident about their health and lives."
"The massive scale of this test and app will allow tens of millions of people to have access to rapid and reliable testing," said Joseph Petrosino, Ph.D., professor, and chairman, Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine. "With lab-based tests, you get excellent sensitivity but might have to wait days or longer to get the results. With a rapid antigen test, you get a result right away, getting infectious people off the streets and into quarantine, so they don't spread the virus."
Abbott Laboratories also created a companion app that people can download to their phones. The app will display a "digital health pass" if a person tests negative for COVID-19.
"BinaxNOW and the NAVICA app give us an affordable, easy-to-use, scalable test, and a complimentary digital health tool to help us have a bit more normalcy in our daily lives," Ford said.
Under the FDA's emergency use authorization, the test can only be administered by healthcare professionals at an approved point-of-care setting.
Photo: Abbott Laboratories