Under Biden’s government, the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have awarded an Australian company $ 230 million to expand the production of its Covid test at home.
Ellume’s home tests, which received emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December, were 95 percent accurate and provided users with Covid-19 results within 15 minutes.
Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden’s Covid response team, announced on Monday that the million-dollar deal with Ellume had been signed during a news conference.
“It can be used if you are experiencing symptoms of Covid, and also to examine people without symptoms so that they can work safely, go to school and to events,” Mr Slavitt said. “After taking the swab, place the sample in a digital analyzer that will send a result to your smartphone in about 15 minutes.”
The money from this agreement will scale up the production of the home test so that it can be more accessible to Americans. The test is offered over the counter at $ 30 per kit and sends the results to the phone after use.
With the money, Ellume would be able to produce 19 million home kits per month by the end of the year, of which 8.5 million was guaranteed for the federal government, Mr Slavitt said. The company will send 100,000 home test kits a month to the United States from February to July.
When the company received permission for emergency use in December, it only produced about 16,000 tests a day.
This announcement comes because health officials have been demanding for months that the test be easy and accessible to the public as a way to respond to the pandemic. Ellume’s home kit was currently one of three available, but it’s the only one that does not require a doctor’s prescription to buy.
The United States has given priority over the past month to the manufacture, distribution and administration of vaccines to respond to the pandemic. But there is still an emphasis on testing so residents can isolate themselves if they are positive.
In addition to the increase in millions of production for his home tests, Ellume said Monday that he will use the money to build a U.S. plant. The company did not disclose a time frame for when this would all happen.
This new agreement was funded by the Health Care Enhancement Act (HCEA) to support the local production of critical medical resources.