NEW YORK – The Canadian government and Becton Dickinson said on Tuesday that it has agreed to buy 7.6 million rapid, point-of-care SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests from the company.
The Canadian government is also buying 2,172 of the BD Veritor Plus Systems, it said. The tests, which received Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration in July, are for use with BD's Veritor Plus Systems. It uses a mid-nasal swab for patient specimen collection and provides results in about 15 minutes. The tests will be deployed to provinces and territories to ramp up testing for COVID-19.
The value of the agreement was not disclosed.
"With the resurgence of COVID-19 cases, testing continues to be an important public health measure to help us flatten the curve and reduce the spread of the virus," Canada's Minister of Health Patty Hajdu said in a statement. "These additional test kits and analyzers will help increase our testing and screening capacity across the country, including in rural and remote communities."
The Canadian government said it previously reached deals with Abbott to purchase up to 7.9 million ID Now rapid tests and up to 20.5 million Panbio COVID-19 antigen tests. It also agreed to purchase 699,750 RP2.1 diagnostic test kits from BioMérieux Canada, and 1.2 million Cepheid GeneXpert rapid COVID-19 tests from test distributor Inter Medico.
BD announced last week that the Netherlands was purchasing 9.2 million rapid SARS-CoV-2 viral antigen test from the company also for use on the BD Veritor Plus System.