Becton Dickinson and : FDA Gives Emergency-Use Authorization to Becton Dickinson Covid-19 Antigen Test

By Kimberly Chin

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency-use authorization to Becton Dickinson & Co. for its Covid-19 point-of-care antigen test, the second such test to get authorization under the program, the health regulator said.

The test can be used on Becton's Veritor Plus System, a device that provides test results in less than 15 minutes and is targeted for healthcare providers, lab workers in physician offices and others in the health sector, the company said early Monday.

"Expanding America's testing capabilities is the result of partnership and ingenuity between the federal government, private sector and academia. Today's authorization is another achievement of that work," said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn.

An antigen test looks for the disease itself, as opposed to antibody tests that look for traces of past exposure.

In May, the agency granted emergency-use authorization to Quidel Corp. for the first antigen test for the Covid-19 virus.

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