National Grocery Firm Begins In-Store Sales of Saliva-Based COVID-19 Test Kits

With labs continuing to face supplies shortages, saliva-based COVID-19 test kits that eliminate the need for swabs, lab professionals and PPE during the sample collection process are growing in use. And the newly announced partnership between test maker Phosphorous and grocery firm Albertsons Companies is among the first to offer saliva tests via the mass retail channel. Deal Details Under the deal, Albertsons will offer Phosphorous’ at-home SARS-CoV-2 saliva test kits at its in-store pharmacies across the country. The COVID-19 RT-qPCR Test can detect RNA from the virus in specimens that can be collected by patients at home using the DNA Genotek Oragene Dx OGD-510 collection kit from OraSure Technologies, which received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA in June. The deal actually expands the original pilot Albertsons rolled out successfully in Houston, Austin and Boise to all of its markets. Albertsons operates stores in 34 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. To obtain a test kit, customers must complete an online questionnaire for review by an Albertsons pharmacist. Once approved, customers either pick up the test or have it delivered, carry out the saliva sample collection process from home and send the sample to Phosphorus’ lab in Secaucus, New Jersey. Customers can get test results by email or text within 72 hours and consult with Albertsons pharmacists if they have follow-up care questions. The kit costs $139.99 and Albertsons says that it isn’t allowed to directly bill customers’ insurers for those costs.

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Here’s a summary of other key strategic diagnostic deals announced in September 2020:

STRATEGIC ALLIANCES, PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABORATIONS
Partner 1	Partner(s) 2+	Deal Summary
Siemens Healthineers	US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention + Joint Research Centre of European Commission	Objective: Develop international process for standardizing SARS-CoV-2 assays Dynamic: Process will involve anchoring each type of SARS-CoV-2 protein to a neutralization antibody titer
Siemens Healthineers	Novartis Pharma	Objective: Develop diagnostic tests for Novartis’ therapeutic products Dynamic: Initial effort will focus on creating a serum neurofilament light chain (NfL) immunoassay to support Novartis’ MS and other neuroscience programs
Foundation Medicine	Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA	Objective: Develop companion diagnostics for use with Takeda’s lung cancer treatment products Dynamic: Use FoundationOne CDx and FoundationOne Liquid CDx to identify patients eligible for mobocertinib or brigatinib (Takeda's Alunbrig)
Thermo Fisher Precision Medicine Science Center	AstraZeneca + University of Nebraska Medical Center	Objective: Develop new clinical protein biomarker discovery solutions Dynamic: Conduct studies using standardized plasma protein profiling workflows, including Thermo Fisher’s ultra-high throughput plasma protein profiling workflow, to discover biomarkers for a range of conditions
Todos Medical	Care GB Plus	Objective: Develop and commercialize Todos Biochemical Infrared Analyses cancer diagnostic platform in Europe, Israel and Africa Dynamic: Geographic expansion of earlier agreement which covered only Israel, under which firms will form a joint venture for tests, with Care GB owning 67% and Todos 33% of venture
Bio-Techne	Qiagen	Objective: Development new exosome-based products and comarket exosome technology to biopharma companies Dynamic: Exclusive partnership giving Qiagen a non-exclusive development license to Bio-Techne's exosome technology for development of companion diagnostics After codevelopment, firms to also promote exosome technology to their respective global biopharma partners for 24 months ending in 2028, with the potential to extend
Cellex	Gauss	Objective: Launch a SARS-CoV-2 antigen test for at-home and point-of-care use Dynamic: Cellex is developing the test which will be integrated with a mobile phone app developed by Gauss to provide instructions on how to collect a nasal swab specimen and perform the test
IncellDx	MD Biosciences	Objective: Validate and launch IncellDx’s COVID-19 cytokine storm panel Dynamic: MD Biosciences to validate the test and being offer it through its CLIA-certified labs in the US and Europe Agreement also covers receptor occupancy assays for CCR5-directed therapeutics, which are being evaluated as treatments for COVID-19
Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND)	Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention	Objective: Promote establishment of COVID-19 rapid diagnostic testing capacity across Africa Dynamic: FIND has convened the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator Diagnostics Pillar, of which Africa CDC is a member, to build technical capacity to allow African countries to implement rapid testing without delay
SkylineDx	Imperial College London + University of California San Diego School of Medicine	Objective: Develop diagnostic test for early diagnosis of Kawasaki disease (KD) Dynamic: Test, which will be based on 13 genes that form a gene signature in blood of children with KD, will be able to distinguish KD from other infectious and inflammatory diseases
Oncocyte	Guardian Research Network	Objective: Improve precision medicine clinical trials from patient recruitment thru regulatory approval, starting with immuno-oncology Dynamic: Leverage GRN’s clinical trial enrollment and data science technology in combination with Oncocyte’s molecular tests and pharma and companion diagnostic development services
BiomX	Boehringer Ingelheim	Objective: Discover biomarkers associated with patient phenotypes in inflammatory bowel disease Dynamic: BiomX to generate metagenomic data for gut microbiome samples from IBD patients using its XMarker biomarker discovery platform Boehringer Ingelheim gets option to negotiate exclusive rights to biomarkers discovered
SG Blocks	Clarity Diagnostics	Objective: Establish CLIA-certified labs in the US Dynamic: Joint venture, called Clarity Modular Lab Solutions, will construct labs using structures developed by SG Blocks with the latter to own 51% of the joint venture
Amoy Diagnostics	Haihe Pharmaceutical	Objective: Codevelop companion diagnostic test for Japanese market Dynamic: Test to be based on AmoyDx’s PCR platform for use with Haihe’s MET kinase inhibitor Glumetinib (SCC244), which targets c-MET exon14 skipping alterations in non-small cell lung cancer patients
Natera	Mass General Cancer Center of Massachusetts General Hospital	Objective: Collaborate on early-stage breast cancer clinical trial of a molecularly targeted therapy Dynamic: Investigator-initiated, multi-center, Phase II randomized trial, called LEADER, to evaluate Ribociclib (Novartis’ Kisqali), a CDK4/6 inhibitor, for treatment of ER-positive breast cancer, using Natera’s Signatera personalized liquid biopsy test to determine patient enrollment eligibility
DISTRIBUTION, SALES & MARKETING AGREEMENTS
Property Owner	Distributor	Deal Summary
Yourgene Health	Immuno-Biological Laboratories (IBL-America)	Products: Yourgene’s Elucigene DPYD chemotoxicity assay and other reproductive health tests Territory: US Non-exclusive
BioMérieux	Baxter International	Products: BioMérieux’s Nephroclear CCL14 diagnostic test, currently in development, for assessing risk of developing persistent sever acute kidney injury (AKI) once it gets regulatory approval Territory: US, Europe Exclusive
Capitainer	Speciality Diagnostix	Products: Capitainer’s qDBS dried blood spot sampling product Territory: Europe, Australia, New Zealand
ArcDia International	Hain Lifescience	Products: ArcDia’s MariPOC point-of-care testing platform and related infectious diseases immunoassays Territory: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg Exclusive
Universal Sequencing Technology	Golden Gateway Partners	Products: UST’s Transposase Enzyme Linked Long-read sequencing (TELL-Seq) kit Territory: Australia Exclusive
LICENSES
Licensor	Licensee	Deal Summary
ERS Genomics	Applied StemCell	Applied StemCell to commercialize CRISPR gene editing services and reagents
MeMed	DiaSorin	DiaSorin gets right to commercialize MeMed’s BV test for distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections for use on its own Liaison analyzer platform
SUPPLY, SERVICE & TESTING AGREEMENTS
Supplier/Servicer	Client/User	Deal Summary
Avacta Group	Abingdon Health	Abingdon to manufacture saliva-based rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigen test Avacta is developing with Cytiva
Pangea	Todos Medical	Todos to be preferred supplier of Pangea’s COVID-19 testing products for contract tracing and will also integrate and tailor Pangea’s technology into its service offerings in US, Canada, and Mexico to create "COVID bubbles" for employers, schools, sports leagues and other clients