Hackensack Meridian Health, a New Jersey-based health network, has licensed a rapid test for COVID-19 created by the company's labs at the Center for Discovery and Innovation to T2 Biosystems, a Massachusetts-based company involved in-vitro diagnostics, it was reported on Tuesday.

According to this contract, T2 Biosystems is authorised to adapt the CDI-developed COVID-19 test to the T2 Biosystems platform, and market and distribute the test in places of need amid the expanding pandemic. The test will be capable of running on the T2Dx Instrument. The T2Bacteria and T2Candida Panels enable the rapid identification of sepsis-causing bacterial and fungal pathogens, offering results in three to five hours directly from whole blood, enabling clinicians to target therapy for patients with secondary bacterial or fungal infections associated with primary COVID-19 infections.

The diagnostic tool, in use under the US Food and Drug Administration's Emergency Use Authorization guidance since 12 March, is claimed to have significantly decreased the timeline for COVID-19 testing in the Hackensack Meridian Health network. The company says that the test has allowed health professionals in the New Jersey locations to quarantine and treat patients suspected of having COVID-19 more rapidly, allocate critical resources more effectively and, in the case of a negative result, spare the patient unnecessary time in the hospital.