Coronavirus tests produced in Maine give results within minutes
The tests, which will start being mass produced this week, could substantially change how testing is done in the United States.
A Maine laboratory helped design and is mass producing a new COVID-19 test that will give results within minutes.
National public health experts are already calling the made-in-Maine tests a potential “game changer†in the fight against the novel coronavirus. Lack of early and widespread testing is considered by scientists to be one of the failures of the Trump administration. Private testing labs, such as Abbott, are working to fill the supply gaps left by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The tests – about 50,000 produced per day – are being made solely at Abbott’s Scarborough plant, starting this week. The Scarborough location has worked for years on rapid-fire flu tests that are used around the world.
Norman Moore, scientific affairs director for Abbott’s Scarborough location, told the Press Herald in a phone interview that production will ramp up this week. Within a few weeks, Abbott scientists were able to move from an idea to producing the new tests because they are using similar equipment that they already use for influenza testing.
The tests will have all the components necessary for health care workers to use as soon as they receive them, Moore said.
“This is really a historic moment,†Moore said. “The feeling that we have being able to make these tests this quickly is quite amazing.â€
Abbott, an Illinois-based company that has a laboratory and manufacturing plant in Scarborough, will start producing the tests on April 1, with a capacity to do 50,000 tests per day, or more than a million per month. Called ID NOW, the test, which is about the size of a toaster, can produce a positive test within five minutes and a negative test within 15 minutes.
Moore said the test will help patients and health care systems on a number of fronts. For instance, health care workers can better conserve their protective gear, such as masks, gloves and gowns, if they know whether a hospital patient is positive or negative within minutes of receiving the test. Currently, a patient at a hospital who has COVID-19 symptoms must be considered to be positive for the disease while waiting for results to come back, which now could take a few hours to a few days.
“The idea was to bring this test to the front lines of the fight against the virus,†Moore said.
According to the COVID-19 Testing Project, which tracks public reporting by the states of how many tests have been conducted, the U.S. has tested at least 850,000 people, with about 140,000 testing positive, as of Monday.
The Abbott tests will be immediately shipped to hard-hit areas of the country, such as New York and Michigan, but some could soon also be used in Maine. Abbott officials said they would provide more information on how soon and to what extent the tests could be available in Maine later today.
Dr. Nirav Shah, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention director, said the development is promising, but it would potentially add to and not supplant the testing Maine is already doing. Maine has been having problems with testing backlogs, which reached about 1,300 last week but have been cut by more than half since then. In Maine and nationally there’s concerns about running out of supplies needed to conduct tests, such as reagents. Shah said on Monday the current capacity is about 3,000 tests. Maine has already given more than 6,000 tests, with 275 positive as of Monday.
“It’s a big step forward,†Shah said. “We are very interested in this test and its ability to turn around a result very quickly.â€
Stanley Schofield, president of MaineHealth’s NorDx Laboratories, said the Abbott tests are a welcome development, but it’s unclear how many will be quickly made available to Maine hospitals. Schofield said he’s requested the test kits from Abbott, which would be especially useful in hospital settings.
“We could really use them if we could get them,†Schofield said. “Getting to know a patient’s COVID-19 status is really important. Minutes count.â€
Schofield said with results in minutes instead of hours, hospitals can more efficiently use their resources, not only protective gear, but also when it comes to deciding whether to use negative-pressure rooms – which help prevent cross-contamination in hospitals – and how to allocate staff.
“It would really help us leverage our existing resources,†Schofield said.
Schofield said it’s too early to tell whether the Abbott tests will help alleviate national problems with testing supplies. Many labs and government agencies are working to address shortfalls
“The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus,†said Robert Ford, president and chief operating officer of Abbott, in a statement. “With rapid testing on ID NOW, healthcare providers can perform a molecular point-of-care testing outside of the traditional four walls of a hospital in outbreak hot spots.â€
Abbott makes rapid tests not only for influenza, but also to detect other common infectious diseases, such as pneumonia, strep, a respiratory virus and HIV.
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Author: Joe Lawlor – Staff Writer
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