The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will pump approximately $180,000 into a new partnership with DiaSorin, Inc. to create a clinical lab test capable of identifying people infected with and recovered from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19, the pandemic that has infected nearly 2 million people since its discovery in December last year.
The new assay would work by detecting the presence of IgG antibodies specific to the virus within a person’s blood. Certain levels of those antibodies are indicative of having recovered from COVID-19 or being in the process of recovery. It has been designed to help identify people who have already been infected with the virus, but whose diagnosis was never confirmed by swab and molecular diagnostic, or who have already recovered from the infection.
The test will run on DiaSorin’s LIAISON XL instrument platform, which has already been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is routinely used at hospitals and reference diagnostic labs throughout the country. That platform allows the assay to be fully automated, making it possible to process as many as 170 patient blood samples per hour, with minimum input required by lab operators. It can produce results within 45 minutes.
DiaSorin will cover the costs that BARDA’s support does not. This test also represents the second COVID-19 test put forward by DiaSorin and taken up by BARDA.