WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The National Institutes of Health has awarded a total of $129.3 million in funding to support scaling-up coronavirus testing and manufacturing new testing technologies.
The U.S. health agency said it is awarding contracts to nine companies for technologies that include portable point-of-care tests for immediate results and high-throughput laboratories that can return results within 24 hours.
'Diagnostic testing is a critical component of the nation's strategy to meet the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic,' said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. 'Just started at the end of April, the RADx initiative has moved swiftly to speed innovation and later-stage development in the biomedical technology sector. The results thus far have been outstanding.'
The nine companies that received a cut in the $129 million funding included, MatMaCorp, Maxim Biomedical Inc, MicroGEM International, Aegis Sciences, Broad Institute, Ceres Nanoscience Inc, Illumina, PathGroup, and Sonic Healthcare USA.
NIH said MatMaCorp, Maxim Biomedical Inc and MicroGEM International will offer point-of-care tests that produce immediate results. While, the remaining six will offer lab-based tests.
In July, NIH made a similar contribution of $248.7 million to seven companies.
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