The US government has awarded a contract worth $US231.8 million ($A303.4 million) to Brisbane technology company Ellume to expand the production of its home COVID-19 tests.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The funding will help Ellume to ramp up their production capacity by 640,000 tests per day by December 2021, the US Department of Defence said on Monday.
The self-performed tests can be sold over the counter in the US and they give results within 15 minutes.
Ellume's tests won US FDA emergency approval in December and the US government will procure 8.5 million of them.
Ellume CEO Dr Sean Parsons said the Brisbane company had a "running start" at getting US approval as they had been working on a home flu test for "the best part of a decade".
"When COVID arose, we were able to take that core technology and spin that into a COVID test pretty quickly," Dr Parsons told Nine's Today program.
"It is a single-use kit...You take a swab of your nose, apply it to the test and you have a result in 15 minutes."
The tests show roughly 95 per cent accuracy, White House COVID-19 senior advisor Andy Slavitt said during a press conference on Monday.
The test is not currently used in Australia, but Ellume has been in talks with the federal government.
"We have had some discussions with the federal government, but nowhere near the kind of engagement we have had in the US. We hope that will change and evolve over time," Dr Parsons said.
Australian Associated Press
