A company in eastern Iowa has been given the green light from the CDC to start making large quantities of test kits for COVID-19 coronavirus.
KCRG-TV 9 reports Integrated DNA Technologies in Coralville got approval on Monday to make the 'primer and probe' test kits.
“We are honored to be the first company in the nation to have our primer and probe kits approved by the CDC for use as a key component of the CDC EUA testing protocol for the diagnosis and detection of COVID-19,” IDT President Trey Martin told KCRG-TV 9.
The company is expected to make 5 million of them a week beginning this week. “We continue to scale production to meet demand and we are in close communication with the CDC and U.S. Food and Drug Administration," Martin says. "IDT will also continue to supply its key component to laboratories, which may assist them in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.”
IDT has previously provided products to test for H1N1, Ebola and Zika virus.
(Photo: IDT Facebook)