As Death Toll Increases, Abbott Launches 2nd Coronavirus Test

TEMECULA, CA — Abbott, one of Temecula's largest employers, has announced another of its coronavirus tests has received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — and this test can deliver positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes, according to the company.

The news sent Abbott's stock price upward Monday. After the market closed, the company's share price was $79.34, up 6.41 percent.

Abbott's Emergency Use Authorization comes after federal officials under President Trump try catching up to U.S. demand after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration failed to roll out tests in a timely manner.

The New York Times called the lag "The Lost Month," and said the failure to test left the United States "blinded" to COVID-19 as the disease spread across the nation undetected.

Abbott will be making ID NOW COVID-19 tests available this week to U.S. healthcare providers in urgent care settings, where the majority of ID NOW instruments are in use today. The company is working with the Trump administration to deploy tests to areas where they can have the greatest impact, according to the company.

The new test comes a week after the company launched its Abbott m2000 RealTime SARS-CoV-2 test, which runs on the m2000 RealTime System located in hospital and labs around the world.

Between the two platforms, Abbott said it expects to produce about 5 million tests per month.

The latest Abbott test uses molecular technology that runs on the company's ID NOW platform, "providing rapid results in a wide range of healthcare settings such as physicians' offices, urgent care clinics and hospital emergency departments," according to an Abbott news release.

"The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus," said Abbott's president and chief operating officer, Robert B. Ford. "With rapid testing on ID NOW, healthcare providers can perform molecular point-of-care testing outside the traditional four walls of a hospital in outbreak hotspots."

Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories is a global company, with a facility in Temecula.

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