CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
November 2020—Qiagen plans to launch a test that can detect SARS-CoV-2 antigens in people with active infections in less than 15 minutes and process, on average, 30 swab samples per hour using a small digital detection system. The test is expected to become available in the fourth quarter of this year.
The Access Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Test, developed in collaboration with Australian digital diagnostics company Ellume, uses the eHub, a portable machine that analyzes nasal-swab samples from up to eight symptomatic people at once, and an eStick, which uses nanoparticle fluorescent detection technology to flag the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein. The device delivers negative results in 15 minutes and in the case of a strong positive, delivers results in three minutes.