[ad_1]
Federal officials gave emergency approval this weekend for a coronavirus saliva test that Yale University researchers used on NBA players and staff.
In a statement, Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen Hanh called the test “revolutionary,” in part because it does not need additional components, which have been prone to shortages, needed with the standard COVID-19 nasal swab test.
The test, known as SalivaDirect, “is simpler, less expensive and less invasive than the traditional method for such tests,” Yale said in a press release on Saturday.
Authorization allows the test to bypass the regular ministry approval process.
SalivaDirect is not based on proprietary technology and Yale researchers have no plans to commercialize it, the university said. The researchers will provide protocols to other diagnostic labs that can then use commercially available equipment to perform the test, the department said.
Nathan Grubaugh, one of the researchers who developed the test, said he expects labs to charge around $ 10 per sample.
“If inexpensive alternatives like SalivaDirect can be implemented across the country, we could finally get this pandemic under control, even before a vaccine,” Grubaugh said, according to the Yale press release.
Yale announced the study in June. Researchers have partnered with the NBA because its players and field staff are regularly tested, are in close contact with each other, and do not wear face covers.
Yale said the accuracy of the results, which have not yet been peer reviewed, was similar to that of the nasal swab test.
[ad_2]
Source link