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| EDGC and Diagnomics has developed a kit that people can use at home to test for COVID-19. Once a sample is taken, it is sent to the lab for testing. The person can then view the results online. Courtesy of EDGC |
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the Accu Saliva & Nasal Swab Combo Kit that EDGC, based in Incheon's Songdo, refers to as the "At-Home Service."
The kit doubles the precision in diagnosing the coronavirus infection by dual sampling with a saliva and nasal swab ― unlike traditional methods that only use the latter. Users can buy the kit from retailers, send their swab and saliva samples in tubes ― all the tools are provided in the kit ― to the firm, and later check the results online.
The FDA is looking to approve the kit for emergency use, according to EDGC's co-CEO Lee Min-seob, as the U.S. has the world's highest fatality rate from COVID-19, surpassing 200,000 deaths earlier this week.
"Laboratories that have the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments certification and Basic Biosafety Level 2 can administer services like our At-Home Service," Lee told The Korea Times. He said EDGC is the only company in Korea with such credentials and infrastructure.
EDGC jointly developed the kit with San Diego-based Diagnomics, one of the two business intelligence partners of the global genetic sequencing industry's No.1 player Illumina of the United States. Diagnomics is also a partner company with EDGC, and with Korea's major diagnostic research company EONE Laboratories in Incheon the other partner involved in launching EDGC.
Established in 2013, EDGC has been focusing on tests to diagnose diseases, including cancer, using its predictive diagnosis technologies. The technologies are based on cell-free DNA analyses that "only three to four years ago were considered an almost unreachable scientific realm," Lee said.
EDGC launched NICE, a non-invasive prenatal test that won recognition from the Ministry of Trade and Industry in November 2019, and an early cancer-detecting liquid biopsy that now leads Asia with GRAIL, an Illumina spinoff.
