LAKE BLUFF, ILLINOIS — 10th District Congressional Republican nominee Valerie Ramirez Mukherjee congratulated Lake County’s own Abbott Laboratories for their success in developing the first real time testing procedure for COVID-19. Abbott announced today that its research and development teams have created the real time test to be processed through its ID NOW testing device, which can identify a positive or negative presence of COVID-19 from a mucus swap sample. Abbott stated that it plans to immediately produce 50,000 testing kits with the expectation that 5,000,000 testing kits will be available per month at full production.
"The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus," said Robert B. Ford, President and CEO of Abbott Laboratories. "With rapid testing on ID NOW, healthcare providers can perform molecular point-of-care testing outside the traditional four walls of a hospital in outbreak hotspots."
“This is the kind of dedication and ingenuity that America needs now to help stem the tide of the rapidly expanding pandemic,” said Valerie Ramirez Mukherjee. “I am especially proud that this breakthrough occurred in the 10th Congressional District by a company founded in Illinois over 100 years ago. Abbott Labs does great work.”
The testing procedure announced today is the second COVID-19 identification test created by Abbott Labs and approved by the FDA under its emergency procedures.
The testing procedure approved ten days ago used Abbot’s m2000 RealTime System.