Aytu BioScience To Issue Coronavirus Rapid Test In North America

Aytu BioScience, Inc. (NASDAQ:AYTU) announced that it has extended the distribution right to commercialize the clinically-validated and commercially-used coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) IgG/IgM Rapid Test in North America. Following this, the company will gain the right to distribute and commercialize the COVID-19 rapid test in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Per the company, the COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test has been licensed from a Hong Kong Corporation named L.B. Resources, Limited. The test is intended for professional use and usually delivers results between two and 10 minutes at the point-of-care.

Point-of-care testing means that results will be delivered right where patients are tested including hospitals, urgent care centers or emergency rooms instead of samples being sent to a laboratory.

Notably, Aytu BioScience is seeking expedited regulatory clearance for this rapid test from Health Canada and COFEPRIS (Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios), the respective regulatory bodies in Canada and Mexico.

Shares of Aytu BioScience were up 37.5% on Monday following the aforesaid announcement. In fact, the stock has rallied 16.9% in the past year against the industry’s decline of 17.1%.

The World Health Organization recently declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, given the alarming levels of its spread and severity. With the global coronavirus outbreak relentlessly posing a threat to human health, a speedy development of vaccines is the need of the hour.

The coronavirus pandemic, which killed more than 16,000 people globally, prompted healthcare systems to prioritize caring for the COVID-19 patients over other activities.

Several drug/biotech companies are working to make new antibodies, drugs and vaccines to fight the disease.

We note that efforts to develop a vaccine for combating the deadly novel coronavirus accelerated in the last couple of weeks. Last week, Moderna, Inc., (NASDAQ:MRNA) dosed the first participant in the phase I study of mRNA vaccine (mRNA-1273) against SARS-CoV-2. Several others like Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:INO) are also pursuing the same objective.

We remain upbeat about the developments as several companies along with global authorities are working closely to introduce a treatment as early as possible to eliminate this deadly virus.

Zacks Rank

Aytu BioScience currently carries Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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