11 September 2020 - - The US Food and Drug Administration has granted Emergency Use Authorization to Abbott's (NYSE: ABT) BinaxNow COVID-19 Ag Card rapid test, Dublin-based ResearchAndMarkets said.

The test will greatly expand access to rapid testing and help to ease the pressure on overburdened laboratories.

The new test is highly portable, affordable and gives results in only 15 minutes. The test does not require any equipment to process samples or read the test results and can be administered by health professionals in point of care settings.

Abbott intends to ship tens of millions of BinaxNow tests in September, ramping to 50 m tests a month at the beginning of October.

The BINAXNow test also includes a companion app to allow people to display a digital health pass as proof of a negative test result. If test results are positive, people receive a message to quarantine and talk to their doctor.

The new test is the sixth test Abbott has launched in the US to fight the coronavirus pandemic. These include two molecular laboratory tests, the ID NOW rapid molecular point of care test and two antibody laboratory tests.

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