NEW YORK ─ The US Department of Defense and US Department of Health and Human Services have awarded a $35.1 million contract to LightDeck Diagnostics to increase manufacturing capacity for its upcoming COVID-19 Ultra-Rapid Antigen and Total Antibody tests, the firm said on Wednesday.
The US HHS' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, funded the project, LightDeck said, adding that the funds will enable it to increase production for the tests from 50,000 per month to 1 million per month by September 2022.
The Boulder, Colorado-based firm said its tests, which are in development, will provide results in five minutes, enabling results during a doctor’s visit and improving the timeliness of diagnosis.
In February, the company announced that BARDA awarded it a $5.65 million contract to develop a rapid, point-of-care antigen test that detects SARS-CoV-2.