Coronavirus Test-makers Ramp Up Production

The difficulty of testing people who may have COVID-19 has become a bottleneck to stopping the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. But soon, this obstacle should be cleared with multiple drug and diagnostic companies seeing their SARS-CoV-2 tests pass the health regulator's muster.

On Wednesday, Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) was granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration for its RealTime SARS-CoV-2, which tests for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The tests run on Abbott's m2000 RealTime Systems that are used in hospital and diagnostic laboratories.

Abbott's machines can run up to 470 tests in 24 hours. The company has 150,000 tests ready to distribute and is ramping up production with a goal of up to 1 million tests per week.

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Source Fool.com