Test Makers Led by iHealth Labs to Get $2 Billion in U.S. Deal (1)

The U.S. agreed to spend $1.3 billion to buy Covid test kits from iHealth Labs Inc., $340 million from Roche Diagnostics Corp., and $306 million from Abbott Rapid Dx North America, Defense Department officials said Friday.

The department announced the agreements Thursday to buy a combined 380 million tests from the three manufacturers without saying how much it planned to spend.

The planned spending marks the next step in Biden’s plan to counter surging cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus by providing 1 billion rapid tests to Americans for free. Retailers are having trouble keeping at-home test ...