Biden Buys $647 Million in Over-the-Counter Rapid Covid Tests

Four companies—Quidel Corp., OraSure Technologies Inc., Intrivio Holdings Corp., and Abbott Rapid DX North America LLC—will deliver 60 million over-the-counter rapid Covid-19 test kits to the federal government under a new contract to increase testing availability.

$647 million in kits will begin being delivered in October, and the federal government will be able to continue ordering kits until September 2022, according to an announcement from the Defense Department Friday.

The contracts follow an announcement by the Biden administration earlier this month about a $2 billion investment in 280 million rapid tests, along with using the Defense Production Act to ...