
New Abbott Coronavirus test takes 13 minutes; 50k tests/day capacity next week - troydavis
https://twitter.com/ScottGottliebMD/status/1243696001958981632
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raphlinus
Here some more facts I found interesting:

* It works on isothermal amplification [1] rather than temperature-cycling PCR, so it's much faster.

* It detects the viral RNA directly, so it should be detecting pretty much the same thing as existing PCR-based tests, just much faster.

* It's the same platform as a flu test. Obviously the Covid-19 version was done in a rush, so it might not be quite as good, but the sensitivity and specificity rates for influenza are amazing: sensitivity above 95% and specificity near 100%. If the numbers for Covid-19 are close, I can see why Gottlieb is calling it a game changer.

I really have to be impressed by our collective technical ingenuity, both the
scientists figuring this stuff out in near real-time, equipment manufacturers
such as Abbott who can do this, and of course the front-line health providers.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop-
mediated_isothermal_ampli...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop-
mediated_isothermal_amplification)

[2]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31558351](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31558351)

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raphlinus
Another test, from BioFire. These look like they're rolling out pretty rapidly
now: [https://www.biomerieux-usa.com/biomerieux-receives-
emergency...](https://www.biomerieux-usa.com/biomerieux-receives-emergency-
use-authorization-biofire-covid-19-test)

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troydavis
Abbott's press release: [https://www.abbott.com/corpnewsroom/product-and-
innovation/d...](https://www.abbott.com/corpnewsroom/product-and-
innovation/detect-covid-19-in-as-little-as-5-minutes.html)

The test/product: [https://www.alere.com/en/home/product-details/id-now-
covid-1...](https://www.alere.com/en/home/product-details/id-now-
covid-19.html)

> The ID NOW™ COVID-19 assay is now available for use on the ID NOW platform
> under U.S. Food and Drug Administration Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).
> The ID NOW™ COVID-19 rapid test delivers high-quality molecular positive
> results in as little as 5 minutes, targeting the coronavirus (COVID-19) RdRp
> Gene.

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skat20phys
This is great but we really need antibody tests almost as much, if not as
much.

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nikolay
We need them - especially if we want to "restart" the economy or assess what's
ahead of us.

