Prognosis

Omicron Variant, Travel Led to Spike in Testing Demand, Abbott CEO Says

BinaxNOW maker aiming to produce 100 million tests a month
Omicron has caused U.S. daily case counts to climb to records

Abbott CEO Robert Ford discusses the company’s new bio-wearable devices and efforts to address the surge in demand for at-home Covid-19 tests.Bloomberg

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By Kristen V Brown and Edward Ludlow

January 6, 2022 at 8:16 PM UTC

Updated on

January 6, 2022 at 8:33 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Abbott Laboratories’ top executive said that the company is ramping up production of its Covid-19 tests after the convergence of a highly contagious variant with the holiday travel season led to an unprecedented surge in demand.

Chief Executive Officer Robert Ford said that Abbott expects to produce 70 million of its at-home BinaxNOW tests this month, and that “I am working with my team every day to see if we can get us to 100 million.”