BD Receives EUA for New Antigen Test to Combat COVID-19

Becton, Dickinson and Company BDX, also popularly known as BD, recently received the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA for a rapid, point-of-care, SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic test for use with its widely available BD Veritor Plus System. This marks the company’s third diagnostic test to receive EUA for the detection of COVID-19.

Notably, BD is likely to ramp up manufacturing capacity to two million tests per week by the end of September. The company anticipates to deliver up to 10 million tests from July through September.

With the introduction of this test, BD’s Lifesciences segment is likely to receive a boost.

BD Veritor System at a Glance

The BD Veritory System offers a one-button functionality, workflow flexibility and is easy-to-use, thereby making it an ideal solution for settings without laboratory personnel. Additionally, it provides customers with real-time reporting capabilities through BD Synapsys informatics solution, which helps them to report data for disease monitoring and surveillance purposes easily.

Significance of BD’s New Test Amid COVID-19 Crisis

This new antigen test delivers results in 15 minutes with the help of an easy-to-use and highly portable instrument. This, in turn, enables real-time results and decision making while the patient is still onsite. The new assay leverages more than 25,000 BD Veritor instruments that are already in use throughout the United States, thereby rapidly expanding access to COVID-19 testing.

The introduction of this test will be crucial for frontline health care workers and patients as they will have access a rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19, which can provide results in real-time at convenient locations like retail pharmacies, urgent care centers and doctors’ offices.

The launch of this new test marks the company’s latest effort in its extensive response to meet the critical health needs associated with the pandemic.

It is important to note here that BD plans to pursue 510(k) clearance for the BD Veritor Plus SARS-CoV-2 assay from the FDA later.

BD Boosts COVID-19 Test Portfolio

In April, BD, collaborated with BioMedomics to launch a new point-of-care test that can detect antibodies in blood to confirm current or past exposure to coronavirus within 15 minutes. This test is another addition to the long line of diagnostic tools for the coronavirus, which can be utilized in community health settings such as urgent care clinics, thereby limiting physical interaction between patients and healthcare workers.

It is important to note here that this new test, which has been developed and manufactured by BioMedomics, will be available through BD. Henry Schein, Inc. will exclusively distribute this test to health care providers across the United States.

Market Prospects

Per a report published on Grand View Research, the global molecular diagnostics market was valued at $9.2 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $18.2 billion by 2027, witnessing a CAGR of 9% between 2020 and 2027. Factors like technological advancements in molecular diagnostics and the rising prevalence of infectious diseases are likely to drive the market.

Hence, the latest development has been a well-timed one for BD.

Price Performance

Over the past year, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have lost 0.1% compared with the industry’s decline of 11.8%.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader medical space include Quest Diagnostics Incorporated DGX, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. WST and Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings LH. While Quest Diagnostics and Laboratory Corporation sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), West Pharmaceutical carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Quest Diagnostics has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 7.6%.

West Pharmaceutical has a projected long-term earnings growth rate of 9.2%.

Laboratory Corporation has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 6.1%.

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