(Reuters) – The United States Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization to Becton Dickinson and Co (BDX.N) for a COVID-19 antigen test that can be administered at the point of care and produce results in 15 minutes, the company said Monday.
Becton Dickinson’s shares rose $ 5.40, or 2.3%, to $ 250.61 in early trading.
Antigen tests are a relatively new type of test for COVID-19 that works by scanning for proteins that can be found inside or inside a virus.
The authorization was based on a robust sample size of 226 samples from sites across the United States, Evercore ISI analyst Vijay Kumar said in a research note.
“We believe the new antigen test will play an important role in the upcoming flu season as a rapid and discarded test,” said Kumar.
Becton Dickinson plans to produce 2 million tests a week in late September.
The FDA has touted rapid tests as an important tool in fighting the pandemic because they can be produced quickly, at relatively low costs, and to evaluate patients in a variety of settings.
The regulator approved in May the first COVID-19 antibody test, performed by Quidel Corp (QDEL.O) [L1N2CR06Y]
The Becton Dickinson test can be used on your existing BD Veritor System platform, which is used in approximately 25,000 health centers across the United States.
Becton Dickinson is selling a variety of other types of tests for COVID-19 and has said that he is working to increase the testing capacity for many of them.
“This will change the game so that front-line healthcare workers and their patients can access a rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19, offering real-time results at convenient locations such as retail pharmacies, urgent care centers, and doctor’s offices. ” said Dave Hickey, president of Becton Dickinson’s integrated diagnostic solutions business.
Report by Carl O’Donnell; Peter Cooney and Dan Grebler edition
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