South Korea’s Celltrion said on Thursday it will distribute over-the-counter rapid coronavirus tests worth about 400 billion won ($33.3 million) across the United States until April this year through its local subsidiary Celltrion USA.

The supply product DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test jointly developed with Humasis comes in two types, one for use by experts and the other by ordinary consumers.

The distribution follows Celltrion USA’s supply contracts recently signed with more than 10 clients including the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)’s procurement service, and Amazon. The two types were granted emergency use authorization from the FDA in April and October last year, respectively.

DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test is a rapid test based on lateral flow immunoassay intended for the qualitative detection of nucleocapsid and receptor binding domains from the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins in human nasopharyngeal swab specimen. Results can be read within 15 minutes. A clinical trial study in some 490 volunteers in the U.S. last year showed the product has a specificity of 99.8 percent and an accuracy of 86.7 percent. The product is also capable of detecting the omicron variant, according to the company.

By Kim Si-gyun and Minu Kim

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