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December 1, 2021

Guilford’s Detect says new test IDs Omicron variant  

Photo | Contributed Packaging for the new at-home COVID-19 test from Guilford's Detect.
By Liese Klein

The new home COVID-19 test from Guilford’s Detect can recognize the Omicron variant of the virus and will go on sale within weeks, the company announced Wednesday.

“Detect’s comprehensive bioinformatics analysis indicates that the Detect COVID-19 test will identify Omicron as accurately as it recognizes the other major COVID-19 variants,” the company said in a statement. 

Harry Kemble, Detect’s informatics and nucleic acids group lead, said, “We are constantly monitoring new variants for potential interactions with our test by computational surveillance. Detect has access to wet lab testing to confirm strong test performance should any potentially problematic new variants arise in the future.” 

The company has access to the U.S. Variant Task Force through its contract with the National Institutes of Health Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Initiative, from which it won an $8.1 million contract earlier this year to scale up its test manufacturing.

Detect, one of entrepreneur Jonathan Rothberg’s startup companies, also unveiled the bright-yellow packaging for its new test. Detect said its product would be “the lowest cost, PCR-quality test on the market among a new class of rapid molecular tests.”

The test will be available to buy on Detect.com starting in mid-December, according to the company. One single-use test will cost $49 and the reusable Detect Hub will be sold separately at $39.

Detect’s test is available without a prescription and takes three minutes to perform, providing results in less than an hour. The company has claimed that the results are superior to antigen tests, the current standard in over-the-counter kits, and comparable to laboratory PCR tests.  

Rothberg announced the Detect test’s entry into the market on Nov. 19 at a news conference attended by the governor and other dignitaries. 

Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com
 

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