BARDA, Chembio partner to develop point of care COVID-19 test

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Chembio Diagnostics, Inc. are partnering to develop a point-of-care in vitro diagnostic test. This advanced lateral flow-based SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection test would run on the company’s proprietary platform.

Currently, there is a need for expanded point-of-care testing for COVID-19. Chembio’s proprietary DPP® Assay and DPP® Micro Reader have obtained U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for several assays including Zika, Ebola, and HIV. The company plans to apply this technology to develop a rapid, easy to use COVID-19 diagnostic for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in respiratory specimens such as nasal swabs (NS) and nasopharyngeal swabs (NP).

In the event the new test is developed and receives necessary FDA approvals, Chembio expects it will be able to scale production of DPP® tests at its Hauppauge, New York facilities to increase capacity for COVID-19 diagnostic tests.

Read more: https://medicalcountermeasures.gov/newsroom/2020/chembio-dpp/