Quidel Corporation (San Diego, CA) announced it has received funding from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to support the development of a point-of-care diagnostic assay that potentially tests for four respiratory viruses: SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A, Influenza B, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
The respiratory virus panel would be developed to run on Quidel’s Sofia 2 flagship instrument. BARDA funding began May 29 and will run through April 2021, totaling approximately $635,000. The goal of the funding is to achieve an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the test by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) within the funding period.
The company says that its Sofia 2 instrument utilizes the original Sofia fluorescent chemistry design while improving upon the graphical user interface and optics system to provide an accurate, objective and automated result in 15 minutes.
The next-generation Sofia 2 system also comes connected to Virena, Quidel’s data management system, which provides aggregated, de-identified testing data in near real-time.