BARDA partners with Ortho Clinical Diagnostics for two COVID-19 antibody tests

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is pleased to announce a partnership with Raritan, New Jersey-based Ortho Clinical Diagnostics to further develop two automated antibody tests for COVID-19.

The VITROS® Anti-SARS-COV-2 Total test detects all COVID-19 related antibodies (IgG, IgM and IgA), and the VITROS® Anti-SARS-COV-2 IgG test detects the IgG antibody, which appears in a patient’s blood in the later phase of infection and remains elevated even after recovery.

These tests offer choices in tracking, surveillance and patient management and may be useful in identifying people who have recovered from COVID-19 and could be eligible to donate convalescent plasma for use as a possible treatment for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Both tests can run on Ortho’s high-throughput, random access, fully-automated VITROS® Systems including the VITROS® XT 7600 Integrated System, the VITROS® 3600 Immunodiagnostic System, the VITROS® 5600 Integrated System, and the VITROS® ECi/ECiQ Immunodiagnostic Systems. Ortho has already installed these analyzers in more than 1,000 hospitals and labs across the U.S.

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics plans to manufacture several millions of tests per week.

Read more: https://medicalcountermeasures.gov/newsroom/2020/orthoclinicaldiagnostics/