COVID-19: 15-minute 'game-changer' test cleared for use in European market

Becton Dickinson and Co’s COVID-19 test which gives results in 15 minutes has reportedly received approval for use in the European market. According to a Bloomberg report, the new coronavirus test detects the presence of antigen on the surface of SARS-CoV-2. It is being touted as a "game-changer" since it can be conducted in a portable device and does not require a lab.

The test runs on the BD Veritor Plus System for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2. According to the company, it is a chromatographic immunoassay for the direct and qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 antigens in nasal swabs from patients with signs and symptoms who are suspected of COVID-19.

In July, the leading medical technology company had announced a $24 million investment from the US Department of Defense in collaboration with the US Department of Health and Human Services to support the scale-up of American manufacturing capabilities for Rapid Detection test kit. It had announced that FDA provided emergency use authorization for the BD Verito Plus SARS-CoV-2 antigen test on July 6, 2020.

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Other innovations

Several companies and researchers around the world have been working to develop rapid detection test kits. Scientists have developed a prototype of a rapid COVID-19 test using a portable instrument for reading the results with a smartphone in 30 minutes. The innovation could enable point-of-care diagnosis without needing to send samples to a lab, according to the study published in the journal PNAS.

According to the study, an important limitation of current assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 stems from their reliance on time-consuming, labour-intensive, and laboratory-based protocols. Researchers opined that there is an urgent need for alternative testing platforms that are rapid, accurate, simple, and portable, adding that RT-PCR remains the gold standard for performing clinical diagnostics to amplify the RNA sequences.

“LAMP only needs one temperature – 65 C – so it is much easier to control,” graduate student Anurup Ganguli, the first author of the study, was quoted as saying by the University website.

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(Image: AP)