BARDA to partner with Luminex, GenMarx on COVID-19 diagnostics

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) announced two new corporate partnerships last week, with the Luminex Corporation and GenMark, Dx, respectively, to get more COVID-19 diagnostic tests to market.

Both are rapid diagnostic tests. The Luminex test draws from nasal and throat swabs. It can be utilized both in community hospitals and other facilities with medium-complexity labs, potentially reducing the pressure on specific, higher complexity facilities. It will work on the already U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved ARIES molecular diagnostic system. The company promotes such assays as highly accessible and capable of producing results in around two hours, with hands-on time of less than five minutes.

An added benefit with Luminex is that the company has already created one COVID-19 diagnostic before this. The NxTAG CoV Extended Panel was granted FDA Emergency Use Authorization last month.

As for GenMark, its test pledges usability for clinical and hospital labs, based on samples of suspected infected. The ePlex SARS-CoV-2 test was already granted Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). BARDA’s involvement will allow GenMark to pursue studies for clearance of the ePlex Respiratory Pathogen v2 Panel for detection of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens.

To Luminex, BARDA will grant approximately $642,000. The company will fund the remainder of the estimated $1.7 million project. Another $749,000 will be provided to GenMark, with the rest of its $1.4 million estimated development cost to be funded by GenMark.