Ortho Clinical Diagnostics’ automated antibody tests for COVID-19 selected for development by BARDA

A pair of automated antibody tests created by Ortho Clinical Diagnostics to track down COVID-19 will be further developed thanks to a new partnership between the company and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

The tests are known as VITROS Anti-SARS-COV-2 Total test and the VITROS Anti-SARS-COV-2 IgG test. The total test detects all COVID-19 related antibodies, while the IgG test charts only IgG antibodies. These appear in patients’ blood during late-phase infections and remain well after recovery. Such tests, therefore, allow medical personnel to track, surveil, and identify people who may have since recovered from COVID-19 and never realized they had it.

This would also allow for more potential donors of convalescent plasma to be found. Such plasma can be used as a possible treatment for those hospitalized with COVID-19.

Ortho’s tests have a distinct advantage as well: the analyzers on which they run are already installed in more than 1,000 hospitals and labs across the U.S. These analyzers are high-throughput, random access, and fully automated.

With assistance from BARDA, Ortho plans to begin manufacturing millions of tests per week.