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COVID-19 Testing Innovation Shines at Tech Show
During CES keynote, Abbott executive explains why testing is a critical first-line of COVID-19 defense.
It's a new year, but there's the same increasing demand for Abbott's COVID-19 tests as the virus continues surging across the globe and people are ready to get back to normalcy.
To address the growing demand, Abbott continues to ramp-up its manufacturing capacity to meet the world's needs.
And now that Abbott fulfilled the federal government's order of 150 million BinaxNOW COVID-19 tests, the company is ready to make tens of millions of the tests available each month for organizations, including schools, workplaces and pharmacies.
Analysts expect demand for COVID-19 testing to continue climbing through the new year. "We see the potential for a 'durable tail' of diagnostic revenue that should persist long after a vaccine is available (into 2022 and beyond), with the potential to mirror annual flu testing volumes in perpetuity," said Morgan Stanley analysts in a Dec. 10, 2020, note.1
Abbott's COVID-19 test innovations were spotlighted at the virtual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) during the COVID-19 State of the Union session on Jan. 12 with Andrea Wainer, Executive Vice President, Rapid and Molecular Diagnostics at Abbott.
CES is the world's most influential technology event and health tech has become an important and growing part of the conference, as digital technology plays an increasingly critical role in healthcare.
Abbott was invited to participate because of the testing technologies the company has developed and distributed at mass scale to help tackle the pandemic and get people back to normalcy.
During the conversation with Bloomberg reporter Michelle Fay Cortez, Wainer discussed Abbott's first molecular COVID-19 tests — created and brought to market in 30 days, a fraction of the time normally required — to the ways in which the company is ramping up capacity to meet the world’s testing demand, which number in the hundreds of millions.
"Testing is a critical first-line of defense," Wainer said. "It needs to be used in context with other hygiene practices of wearing your mask and washing your hands and by no means does this replace that. It comes together along with vaccinations. So, the more you can test, the more you can catch the virus. It’s just simple math. Because at any one point in time, anyone can become infected."
Want to know more? Get the details on Abbott's robust COVID-19 testing effort and the company's latest test for at-home use through a virtually guided online service.
Reference 1 Morgan Stanley, Big Debates 2021 – North America, Medical Technology/Diagnostics and Life Science Tools, "What's the Durable COVID-19 Opportunity?", December 10, 2020
This story was originally published on January 13, 2021 and updated on June 08, 2022.
Important Safety Information
The BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 tests have not been FDA cleared or approved. They have been authorized by the FDA under an emergency use authorization. They have been authorized only for the detection of proteins from SARS-CoV-2, not for any other viruses or pathogens, and are only authorized for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of in vitro diagnostics for detection and/or diagnosis of COVID-19 under Section 564(b)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360bbb-3(b)(1), unless the declaration is terminated or authorization is revoked sooner.
For serial testing, the BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Tests should be performed twice over 3 days, at least 24 hours (and no more than 48 hours) apart. For symptomatic use, a single test can be used.
The ID NOW COVID-19 EUA has not been FDA cleared or approved. It has been authorized by the FDA under an emergency use authorization for use by authorized laboratories and patient care settings. The test has been authorized only for the detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2, not for any other viruses or pathogens, and is only authorized for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of in vitro diagnostic tests for detection and/or diagnosis of COVID-19 under Section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360bbb-3(b)(1), unless the authorization is terminated or revoked sooner.
The SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay has not been FDA cleared or approved. It has been authorized by the FDA under an emergency use authorization for use by authorized laboratories. The test has been authorized only for the detection of the IgG antibody against SARS-CoV-2, not for any other viruses or pathogens, and is only authorized for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of in vitro diagnostic tests for detection and/or diagnosis of COVID-19 under Section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360bbb-3(b)(1), unless the authorization is terminated or revoked sooner.
The Abbott RealTime SARS-CoV-2 assay and the Alinity m SARS-CoV-2 assay have not been FDA cleared or approved. These tests have been authorized by the FDA under an Emergency Use Authorization for use by authorized laboratories. These tests have been authorized only for the detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2, not for any other viruses or pathogens, and are only authorized for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of in vitro diagnostic tests for detection and/or diagnosis of COVID-19 under Section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360bbb-3(b)(1), unless the authorization is terminated or revoked sooner