GUILFORD, Conn. (WTIC Radio) - A biomedical research division under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded an up to $30 million contract to a health technology company in Guilford to advance their work in creating a new at-home rapid test that will identify both COVID-19 and the flu.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is partnering with the company Detect to support their development of a faster and more intelligent COVID-19 at-home test kit.
According to Detect Founder and Chairman Dr. Jonathan Rothberg, the new Detect COVID-19+Flu test will be based off the technology used to create Detect's first FDA-authorized at-home test which launched in late 2021.
The COVID-19+Flu test will be able to identify and distinguish between the coronavirus and influenza A/B, Rothberg said, and the results will be available within five to 15 minutes.
He explained that the test will have a hub that connects to a smart phone and processes a single nasal swab.
"You'll swab, use the disposable [test], put the disposable in the hub, walk away and on your iPhone it will say, within five minutes potentially, if you're positive and after 15 or 30 minutes, give you a clear bill of health," Rothberg said.
The hub will also be able to recognize all known COVID-19 variants of concern, Rothberg said, including the Omicron variant. Its design will be optimized for the detection of any new variants that come up in the future as well, he said.
With the ability to detect the flu, Rothberg said the technology can be expanded in the future to create rapid at-home tests for other common respiratory viruses or pathogens.
Though the $30 million will go toward technology development, Rothberg said it will also go toward making the test affordable to the general public.
"Our goal is to make this the most economical test," he said.
Though Rothberg admitted that it's a stretch, he said his personal goal is to have the COVID-19+Flu test launch sometime this year.