Abbott
(NYSE:ABT) will supply millions of its laboratory-based COVID-19 antibody tests to the U.K.’s National Health Service over the coming months under a contract announced today.
The company has already shipped 800,000 of the IgG antibody test to NHS laboratories this week. The news comes on the same day that Abbott said that Health Canada has granted interim authorization for the IgG serology test, which last month received an FDA emergency use authorization in the U.S. and CE Mark in the EU.
The IgG test runs on Abbott’s Architect i1000SR and i2000SR and Alinity i laboratory instruments. Widely used in laboratories around the world, the Architect system is able to run 100–200 tests per hour.
“Abbott is proud to support the NHS’ COVID-19 antibody testing strategy announced today, with agreement to supply antibody tests to NHS laboratories across the U.K.,” said Mike Clayton, Abbott’s managing director of Northern Europe diagnostics.
Public officials generally view antibody tests as an important tool to reopen their economies after the pandemic’s first wave. The tests can provide insights into the percentage of the population that has been infected, recovered and hopefully gained some immunity. A recent University of Washington study found Abbott’s IgG test had 99.9% specificity and 100% sensitivity among people tested 17 days after the start of symptoms.
“Antibody testing is an important next step as we work to get back to our normal lives,” Clayton said in a news release.