Rapid Covid Test Used by NBA Gets $481 Million U.S. Boost (1)

The U.S. government is investing $481 million in startup Cue Health Inc. to expand manufacturing of its rapid, point-of-care Covid-19 test, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense said on Tuesday.

As part of the deal, Cue Health plans to ramp up production from several thousands of tests daily to about 100,000 of the assays each day by March. The vast majority of that production will go to the government, which is acquiring about 6 million of the single-use tests and 30,000 associated instruments.

Cue Health’s test got emergency clearance in June. It detects ...