Biden-Harris Administration Invests $600 Million to Boost U.S. COVID-19 Test Manufacturing and Reopens COVIDTests.gov; Public Attitudes Toward COVID-19 Testing Changing
In a move designed to further bolster the nation’s fight against COVID-19, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), has announced a substantial investment of $600 million in 12 domestic COVID-19 test manufacturers. Alongside this investment, COVIDTests.gov, a resource for free COVID-19 tests, is set to reopen, ensuring access to tests for households across the United States.
This strategic investment in U.S. manufacturing looks to enhances the country’s preparedness to combat COVID-19 in front of the upcoming cold and flu season but also strengthens its capacity to manufacture tests, reducing reliance on overseas production. Moreover, this initiative secures an estimated 200 million new over-the-counter COVID-19 tests for future federal government use, ensuring a robust supply of essential testing resources.
The awardees include a diverse range of companies from different states. Below are the award winners along with total dollar amounts associated with the awards:
1. Access Bio in New Jersey: $88.7 million
2. Advin in California: $4.5 million
3. Azure in Texas: $61.2 million
4. CorDx in California: $86.4 million
5. iHealth in California: $167 million
6. InBios in Washington: $20.7 million
7. Kwell Laboratories in California: $31.4 million
8. Maxim Bio in Maryland: $49.5 million
9. OraSure Technologies in Pennsylvania: $5.7 million
10. Princeton BioMeditech in New Jersey: $28.7 million
11. Quidel in California: $28.6 million
12. Sekisui in Delaware: $20.5 million
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra emphasized the importance of reducing reliance on overseas manufacturing and highlighted the role of these investments in strengthening domestic production levels of at-home COVID-19 rapid tests. This move is expected to play a significant role in mitigating the spread of the virus. The focus on domestic production is a positive for domestic test producers and consistent with recent trends in awards from the Federal government.
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell underscored the significance of manufacturing COVID-19 tests in the United States. It not only strengthens preparedness for upcoming seasons but also reduces dependency on other nations while providing valuable employment opportunities to American workers.
In addition to the investments in domestic manufacturing, COVIDTests.gov is set to reopen on September 25, allowing households to order four free tests. These tests are designed to detect the currently circulating COVID-19 variants and will be intended for use until the end of 2023. Clear instructions on how to verify extended expiration dates will be included, ensuring ease of use and accurate results. This reopening follows previous rounds of free test distribution, where ASPR and USPS provided over 755 million tests to households across the nation. These efforts complement ASPR’s ongoing distribution of free COVID-19 tests to various communities and underserved populations, totaling 500 million tests provided to date.
COVID-19 cases have increased throughout the fall with test positivity rates matching other periods of high activity driven by new variants in the XBB lineage viruses. However, the general trend has been for the public to be less concerned about COVID-19 as the number of serious cases, hospitalizations, and deaths has declined significantly from surges over the last few years. A recent study by Emblem Health found patients were much less likely to test as the disease entered the endemic phase and only 2 in 5 individuals would avoid contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19. Consequently, positive test results are likely not currently reflective and a good proxy for disease activity as they have been in previous years. Additionally, given building immunity in the community hospitalizations are likely no longer a good proxy for total disease activity as well.