BioMedomics Launches COVID-19 IgM-IgG Rapid Test for Novel Coronavirus

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 14 Mar 2020

Image: COVID-19 IgM-IgG Rapid Test (Photo courtesy of BioMedomics, Inc.)

BioMedomics, Inc. (Morrisville, NC, USA) has developed and launched one of the world’s first rapid point-of-care lateral flow immunoassays for the diagnosis of coronavirus infection. The new rapid IgM-IgG combined antibody test for COVID-19 is used to qualitatively detect IgG and IgM antibodies of the novel coronavirus in human serum, plasma or whole blood in vitro. These proteins indicate that a person’s immune system has responded to infection with the COVID-19 virus. It is one of the world’s first rapid tests for coronavirus utilizing this technology.

Recent studies suggest that a high percentage of patients show no clinical symptoms of the virus, which makes screening patients vitally important. The test can be used for rapid screening of carriers of the virus that are symptomatic or asymptomatic. By using biomarkers from the body’s immune response to COVID-19 instead of looking for the virus itself, the test can help determine if a person has been infected with COVID-19 even after the virus is no longer present. This information helps experts to better understand how the virus spreads through populations and develop strategies to prevent and slow the epidemic. The test is ideally suited for hospitals, clinics and test laboratories, and can also be effectively deployed in businesses, schools, airports, seaports and train stations, etc.

BioMedomics’ new rapid IgM-IgG combined antibody test for COVID-19 has been used widely by the Chinese CDC to combat infections and is now available globally. BioMedomics has also received CE Mark-IVD certification for the test which will allow it to be used to help diagnose patients in areas of Europe that have been impacted by the appearance of the COVID-19 pathogen.

“We are very proud to help fight this global epidemic,” said Dr. Frank Wang, CEO of BioMedomics. “Our team has been working hard to make this test a reality in the hope that it can help millions of people around the world by providing health experts with the information that they need to help treat and contain this new virus.”

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