Imagine being able to take a check to find out if you have COVID-19 and get the result in minutes, not days. Also think the check costs $1 or $5 so you can take the checks as you wish. Think of how much less difficult it would be for doctors to treat patients and for public fitness centers to locate and isolate those exposed to the virus. You can be sure that you and your child are fit before going to school, going to work, dining, or visiting parents or grandparents you haven’t noticed in months.
The easiest-to-use tests with quick effects are the safest path to general until we have a vaccine, and thanks to an assignment from the National Institutes of Health called “Shark Tank”, scientists are transforming COVID-19 diagnostic tests.
The Shark Tank, which we proposed and created through Congress in April, is a $2.5 billion initiative in which the NIH, the Advanced Biomedical Research and Development Authority and the personal sector work together to expand new tactics to produce tens of millions of COVID-19 diagnostic tests capable of delivering fast and affordable results.
Currently, the United States can conduct about 800,000 COVID-19 tests consistently, but existing tests are complex. And so many things require other people to queue for hours to take the tests and can wait days or even weeks to get the results.
This program, officially called Rapid Diagnostic Acceleration, works hard to drive new technologies designed to produce tens of millions of diagnostic tests that can produce effects in minutes or hours, from waiting several days for a lab to get a result. RADx did in a few months what used to take 3 to seven years.
Since April, scientists have been in favor of a “great white shark,” or perhaps some “great white sharks,” which can help involve the disease and give Americans the confidence to go back to school, paint and eat out. Here is an update on the existing situation.
The NIH announced last week that it was making a $248.7 million investment in seven corporations for a variety of new diagnostic tests. This budget will involve the scaling and manufacturing of the tests essential to bring them to market this autumn.
Four of the company’s concepts will stimulate laboratory testing, expanding the number of tests that can be processed and accelerating the time required to get the results. Three of the technologies decided are immediate evidence at the point of care that can be administered in workplaces, schools, universities, day care centers and retirement homes without having to send them to a lab.
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For example, a company’s check uses a handheld device and can find the coVID-19 virus guilty in 30 minutes. Another company’s check will produce electronic effects in 15 minutes. Another company increases the ability to process tens of thousands of controls at once.
Since this ambitious initiative began on April 29, scientists and engineers have presented more than 650 concepts to NIH for review. On an ongoing basis, their programs are evaluated through government experts, schools and universities and industry. Of the 650 programs won to date, the NIH has immersed the 31 most sensitive in the “shark tank”, entering them into “Phase 1” where they go through an extensive era of technological validation that can last up to six weeks. More than 20 of these concepts are expected to be for Phase 2 in the coming weeks.
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“If all goes well, RADx points to cutting-edge technologies that will make millions of SARS-CoV-2 tests available to Americans until the end of the summer or fall,” said NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins in April. The tests, which will facilitate the immediate identification and quarantine of other inflamed people and their contacts, will likely be an essential detail to allow Americans to safely return to public spaces, adding support to paintings and school.
While the nation waits for the development of safe and effective vaccines and additional treatments, diagnostic testing remains critical to the COVID-19 response. The importance of the Shark Tank initiative is clear: We need tens of millions more inexpensive and reliable tests with quick results to contain the virus and help Americans have the confidence to go safely back to school, back to work and out to eat.
Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican for Tennessee, is chairman of the Senate Health Committee. Senator Roy Blunt, Republican for Missouri, is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Health Appropriations. Follow them on Twitter: @SenAlexander and @RoyBlunt