Democratize and digitize. These principles are behind Abbott's long-term strategy to develop rapid COVID-19 tests, including the company's latest, BinaxNOW.

"We didn't want to just do another test," said Abbott President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Ford during the recent WSJ Tech Live panel, "The Vaccine and Testing Arms Race." Instead, the company has been developing life-changing tech to attack the pandemic on critical fronts — speed, simplicity, affordability, access and reliability.

The WSJ Tech Live conference spotlights critical topics impacting technology and business. Not surprisingly, this year's event focused on COVID-19.

Abbott was invited to participate in a panel and round-table discussion because of the technologies the company has developed to help tackle the pandemic, get people back to doing the things they love and boost the economy.

During the panel, Ford shared the strategy behind the development of Abbott's game-changing BinaxNOW test.

First, Abbott wanted a COVID-19 test that was accessible, so the company priced BinaxNOW at $5.

Second, it needed to be digitized, so the company paired the test with a first-of-its kind complementary app called NAVICA, which allows people who test negative to display their result on their mobile device.

"We build our products as if they're intended for our own family," Ford said. "I couldn’t think of a more specific situation where that's so true to us as we look at these tests."

Watch the panel here.