The U.S. Defense Dept. announced today that it awarded Ellume $231.8 to onshore production capacity of its Ellume COVID-19 home test.
In coordination with the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), the DoD contract is an industrial base expansion to allow Ellume to increase the production capacity of its home test by 640,000 tests per day by December 2021.
The expansion includes the procurement of 8.5 million tests to be distributed across the U.S. in accordance with the National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness policy established January 21, 2021, according to a news release.
Valencia, Calif.-based Ellume’s COVID-19 home test is the first FDA-authorized fully at-home diagnostic for detecting symptomatic or asymptomatic COVID-19, having received emergency use authorization (EUA) in December. The test’s development was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative program.
Ellume’s test is comprised of a sterile nasal swab, a dropper, processing fluid, and a Bluetooth-connected analyzer for use with an app on a smartphone. The app provides step-by-step video instructions to perform the test. Results show up on the user’s smartphone in fewer than 15 minutes, with options to share the results with healthcare professionals, health authorities, employers and educators.