Amazon gets FDA green flag for its COVID-19 test kit

The American multinational technology company, Amazon has received Food and Drug Administration authorization (FDA) for its COVID-19 test developed by its subsidiary STS Lab Holdco and the company is now intending to utilize it for its employee testing program.

According to The Verge, Amazon Company, which has got a green flag from FDA for its COVID-19 test kit is now planning to utilize it for its on-location Covid testing programs.

The test is performed by utilizing a nasal self swab that should be done either under the management of a medical services supplier or as a part of an at-home kit where a patient can take his/her own sample and then send it to an incorporated lab.

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The FDA's authorization, obtained by The Verge read, "Amazon plans to use the Amazon Real-Time RT-PCR Test for Detecting SARS-CoV-2 (Amazon Test) as part of the company's overall Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) preparedness and response program."

The approval additionally portrays Amazon's worker screening program. Some Amazon workers will be naturally given testing appointments around every 14 days. The tests are voluntary.

"Amazon has partnered with a third-party healthcare provider who will issue the necessary prescriptions and individual test orders," the authorization added.

The approval letter is routed to Cem Sibay, the VP of Amazon Labs. The previous summer, Amazon tapped Sibay to assemble its in-house COVID-19 testing lab, The Verge reported.

In October, the organization said it had the foundation to run a huge number of tests for its employees every day.

The new test is an adjustment of another COVID-19 test made by BGI Genomics, which the authorization said Amazon utilized at the end of August.

Also read: Google is offering free, weekly Covid-19 tests to its employees

The Verge indicated that the organization started utilizing the modified version that would turn into the Amazon test on August 28th, 2020. Between late September and early December 2020, it ran more than 560,000 samples, as per the approval.

Amazon began selling at-home COVID-19 testing packs made by genomics organization DxTerity in January. That test sells for USD 110. The organization keeps on venturing into medical services: a week ago, it declared that it would begin offering its in-house telehealth and at-home medical services program to different organizations.

Amazon has likewise communicated interest in clinical testing previously. The Verge reported that back in 2018, the organization was in converses with the purchase diagnostics organization Confer Health.