RT-PCR

Of the 28 companies in the index, 21 firms saw their stock prices increase throughout the first half of the year, while seven firms' share prices decreased.

Cowen said that Hologic is on track to more than double its Panther system placements to about 500 this year, driven by SARS-CoV-2 test demand.

The firm said that its RAQ SARS-CoV-2 PCR Kit allows the replacement of full nucleic acid extraction with a simple heat treatment, decreasing sample processing time.

Warrior Diagnostics' RT-PCR test detects SARS-CoV-2 RNA in nasopharyngeal swab samples and uses the same primers and probes as the CDC SARS-CoV-2 test.

To enable the use of saliva in addition to other types of samples, Sysmex requested a change to a marketing approval it obtained in March.

Avalon said it intends to establish a facility in the US for the manufacture and assembly of antibody and PCR-based detection systems.

The company said it has scaled up production capacity to two million reactions per week and has the potential to scale up to three million reactions per week.

The new method uses Takara Bio's SmartChip PCR instrument, chips, and reagents to run 5,184 reactions per chip in less than 30 minutes.

The test uses a proprietary at-home PCR nasal swab test with a turnaround time of 24 hours and is authorized for use by at-risk people.