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Under the Biden administration, the Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded an Australia-based company $ 230 million to expand manufacturing of its home Covid test.
Ellume’s home testing, which received emergency use clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December, was 95% accurate and provided users with Covid-19 results in 15 minutes.
Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to President Joe Biden’s Covid Response Team, announced on Monday the $ 1 million deal with Ellume at a press briefing.
“They could be used if you are experiencing symptoms of Covid, and also for screening people without symptoms so that they can go to work, school and events safely,” Slavitt said. “After you take the swab, you place the sample in a digital analyzer, which will send a result to your smartphone in about 15 minutes.”
The money from this deal would increase the manufacture of the home test so that it is more accessible to Americans. The test is available over the counter for $ 30 per kit and sends the results to his phone after use.
With that money, Ellume would be able to produce 19 million home test kits per month by the end of the year, including 8.5 million guaranteed for the federal government, Slavitt said. The company is reportedly shipping 100,000 home test kits to the United States per month from February through July.
When the company received emergency use authorization in December, it was only manufacturing about 16,000 tests per day.
The announcement comes as health officials have pleaded for months for testing to be easy and accessible to the public as a way to respond to the pandemic. Ellume’s home kit was one of three currently available, but it’s the only one that doesn’t require a medical prescription to be purchased.
The United States has prioritized the manufacture, distribution and administration of vaccines over the past month to respond to the pandemic. But there was still emphasis on testing so residents could self-isolate if they tested positive.
In addition to increasing manufacturing by the millions for its home testing, Ellume said Monday that he would use the funding to build a US-based factory. The company has not revealed a timeline for completing any of this.
This new deal was funded through the Health Care Enhancement Act (HCEA), to support the national production of essential medical resources.
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