IBRI IN THE NEWS: IBRI Licenses Rapid-Testing Technology for Infectious Diseases

August 19, 2020

Source: BioSpace

Point-of-care testing is a critical tool in the battle against COVID-19, and researchers in Indiana are working around the clock to deliver rapid tests with high specificity.

Since the onset of COVID-19, a number of point-of-care tests have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under Emergency Use Authorization, including Abbott’s ID NOW RealTime SARS-CoV-2 test that has been widely used by the White House to test visitors. But, there have been concerns raised regarding the test generating a high rate of false negatives in COVID-19 cases.

As accurate testing continues to be a concern as the nation seeks to dampen the spread of the novel coronavirus, Michael Pugia, director of Bioanalytical Technologies at Indiana Biosciences Research Institute (IBRI), said the goal is to change the paradigm of testing in order to provide more accurate results. Over the years, even before COVID-19 became the chief testing concern, Pugia, a 30-year diagnostics veteran, said there have been a number of issues with point-of-care tests, including rates of false positives and even delays of testing results. Some of the failures from past attempts have occurred due to people “trying to break the laws of nature,” he said.

“If its point of care, the answer has to be within one to 30 minutes,” Pugia told BioSpace in an interview. “And you need to have a high specificity as you screen a widespread group of people.”

To read the full article, go to BioSpace.