BinaxNOW COVID Kits Typify ‘Future’ of ‘Democratized’ Testing: Abbott CEO

Rapid COVID-19 tests like Abbott Labs’ BinaxNOW antigen self-test kits will typify “the future of testing,” said Abbott CEO Robert Ford in a CES 2022 keynote Thursday. “These simple tests will become more widely available to do at home,” he said. “They’re going to talk to our phones. They’re going to communicate with our doctors. The future of decentralized and democratized testing will enable us to have the right test at the right place at the right time, and will give everyone actionable next steps.” Abbott will manufacture more than 70 million BinaxNOW test kits this month, he said. CTA procured an undisclosed volume of BinaxNOW kits for free distribution to CES 2022 audiences at badge pickup locations in Las Vegas (see 2112170033). Health innovation “has certainly taken on a new urgency” since an in-person CES last convened in Las Vegas two years ago, said CTA President Gary Shapiro, introducing Ford to the Venetian Palazzo Ballroom stage before a live audience. “Without incredible innovations in health tech,” including COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, “we just wouldn’t be sitting here together in this room,” said Shapiro. Ford’s big keynote announcement was to tease about a forthcoming “line of products” called Lingo fashioned from the research findings that Abbott compiled when it developed the diabetes monitoring devices now being used by 3.5 million patients, he said. He called Lingo a “new category of consumer biowearable sensors” that Abbott is developing to “track key signals in the body to better understand what it’s telling us.” Lingo will enable the measurement of the body’s “biomarkers” for glucose, lactate, ketone and alcohol for a comprehensive read of “metabolic health,” he said. “Your body is constantly talking to you, and now it’s time to listen.” Abbott will share more details about Lingo products “when we can, and also when and where they will be available,” said Ford.