November 2, 2020 – BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (Franklin Lakes, NJ) announced the receipt of an order from the Dutch Ministry of Health for 9.2 million of its rapid, point-of-care, SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests for use on the BD Veritor Plus System, which detects SARS-CoV-2 in symptomatic patients in approximately 15 minutes.
The company says that the first 1.2 million units will be delivered by mid-November.
This is the first government contract in Europe for this test, which was CE marked to the IVD Directive (98/79/EC) in September.
The Dutch Ministry of Health increased its initial order by 8 million assays to improve testing capacity. BD expects the order to be fulfilled by June 2021.
The BD Veritor Plus System is already in use across Europe to detect Influenza A+B, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and Group A Strep. The SARS-CoV-2 assay has been available in the United States since July through an Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).