NEW YORK — Abingdon Health said on Thursday that a rapid point-of-care SARS-CoV-2 antibody test developed by a consortium of UK companies and the University of Oxford has received the CE mark.
According to Abingdon, the AbC-19 Rapid Test is designed to detect immunoglobulin G antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in a finger prick blood sample, with results available in 20 minutes without the need for laboratory analysis.
The test was developed by the UK Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC), which was founded in April by Omega Diagnostics, Abingdon, BBI Solutions, CIGA Healthcare, and the University of Oxford.
York, England-based Abingdon said that it will ramp up production of the test starting in August, with the goal of manufacturing 500,000 tests a month by October and 1 million tests a month by January. The company added that members of the UK-RTC are expected to manufacture 10 million tests within a six-month period, and that all materials required to meet this goal have been acquired.
Abingdon said the test has been shown to be 99.4 percent accurate in studies performed in partnership with Ulster University, and that additional independent evaluation is slated for the coming weeks. The company added that ease-of-use trials are also being planned in order to have the test approved for use by individuals at home.