Abbott expects to produce 50,000 ID Now tests daily.
Medical-device maker Abbott Laboratories is rolling out a new desktop device that can detect coronavirus in five minutes in many cases without a patient leaving the doctor’s office.
Abbott’s new test for detecting the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 runs inside a toaster-sized analyzer called the “ID Now” that is already in use in many doctor’s offices, hospitals and urgent-care clinics. In March, Abbott announced availability of a new test that can detect the virus using larger laboratory-based analyzers.
Between the two, Illinois-based Abbott said it expects to produce about 5 million COVID-19 tests per month, including 50,000 ID Now tests per day. Abbott is among the array of biomedical companies with major work forces in Minnesota whose systems are being used on the front lines of the global coronavirus outbreak.
Minneapolis-based Bio-Techne is making analyzers to enable researchers to detect when a patient is having a medical emergency related to COVID-19. Eden Prairie-based CHF Solutions is shipping a device that removes excess fluids from intensive-care patients treated for COVID-19. National attention has fixed on Medtronic and its Puritan Bennett ventilators that supply oxygen to fluid-overloaded patients.
At the same time, some companies’ products are seeing declines, like spinal-repair devices and products used mainly in nonemergency surgeries.
“Market demands, potential staffing needs and other business considerations are extremely fluid,” said Shaye Mandle, chief executive of the Golden Valley-based health technology trade group Medical Alley Association, via e-mail. “Some companies are seeing order increases for a particular product that are unprecedented; others are grappling with challenging business interruptions and an unpredictable timetable for their resolution.”
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