SensNews Sept 2020

19 Sensor100 September 2020 Covid-19 tests that give results in minutes to be rolled out across world The tests, which look like a pregnancy test, with two blue lines displayed for positive, are read by a health worker. One test has received emergency approval from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the other is expected to get it shortly. The tests are manufactured by SD BIosensors in S. Koea and Abbott Diagnostics. Wealthy countries that have signed up to the Access to Covid tools initiative (ACT accelerator), as the UK has, will also be able to order the tests.The initiative was launched in March by theWHO, the European commission, the Gates Foundation and the French government. In return for a volume guaran- tee from the Gates Foundation, the companies are making 20% of their production available to low- and middle-income countries and 80% to the rest. Germany has already ordered 20m tests and France and Switzerland are following suit. Catharina Boehme, CEO of the non-profit Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (Find), a key player in the initiative, said they had put in bulk orders for the tests quick- ly so that low- and middle-income countries would not lose out in the global scramble for rapid tests, as they did when the PCR tests came out.“We see the pressure of sup- ply building rapidly.That’s why we need this volume guarantee.We needed to secure volumes for low- and middle-income countries, before all the other countries place their orders and the poor populations again lose out. “For us the message is about unprecedented collaboration.We are really able to show what can be achieved when the world and leading global health partners come togeth- er with a shared priority.” Reported by The Guardian 28 September