Roche receives emergency-use authorisation for Covid-19 antibody test

Roche received emergency-use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for its new Covid-19 antibody test, according to a company statement.

The Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 test is designed to determine if a patient has been exposed to the coronavirus and has developed antibodies against it, Roche said on Sunday.

Governments are trying to learn how many people have been exposed to Covid-19 as they reopen economies and end social-distancing measures. The restrictions have resulted in millions of lost jobs, closed schools and businesses and sent the financial markets through the most turbulent period since the 2008 financial crisis.

With no vaccine available yet for the novel coronavirus, more than 100 different programs have been launched to develop and test treatments. These include everything from antiviral drugs and antibody-containing plasma from recovered patients, to traditional Chinese herbal medicine.

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Gilead Sciences’s antiviral drug remdesivir was cleared by US regulators on May 1st for emergency use in Covid-19 patients, becoming the first medication backed by early clinical data to be made available to fight the disease. – Bloomberg