28 May 2020 - - US-based fluid dispensing platforms provider BioDot has compressed production times for most new lateral flow dispensing platforms from months to four to six weeks, to support increasing demand globally for COVID-19 testing, the company said.

Each platform, or "work cell," which dispenses highly precise volumes of specialized reagents for detecting COVID-19 antibodies, can enable production of one m point-of-care tests per week.

BioDot is operating 7 days a week to meet demand from global diagnostics manufacturers, including contract development manufacturing organizations.

Worldwide, more than 50 companies are producing or developing COVID-19 antibody tests using BioDot technology.

Lateral flow tests for COVID-19 can detect virus antibodies in blood (IgG, IgM or both).

A patient's blood sample is placed onto a pad on the test device, onto which a BioDot work cell has previously dispensed a specific sequence of reagents and controls.

While clinicians wait, roughly 15 minutes, antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in the sample will attach to test lines and present a positive or negative result visually or through a reader.

BioDot's automated dispensing platforms are used by diagnostics manufacturers to produce high-quality COVID-19 tests rapidly and at a scale, and these companies are responsible for regulatory approvals and distribution to the point of care.

BioDot is a provider of automated, ultralow-volume, non-contact fluid dispensing platforms for R and D applications and commercial-scale manufacturing across diagnostics and life sciences, medical products and applied industrial markets.

Its technologies are integral to production of point-of-care diagnostics for infectious diseases, allergy tests and diabetes maintenance as well as veterinary medicine and environmental applications.

BioDot, founded in 1994, is based in Irvine, Calif. and has international offices in Europe and Asia.