-Becton Dickinson and Co said on Tuesday it was confident that its COVID-19 tests would be able to detect the new coronavirus variant Omicron.
The company sells a variety of tests for COVID-19, including antigen and PCR tests. In October, it started shipping at-home rapid COVID-19 tests in the United States that can confirm results using an entirely automated smartphone app.
Becton also said it had conducted analyses of the variant using all available genome sequences from the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) — the largest database of novel coronavirus genome sequences in the world.
The company added that it has evaluated millions of genomes so far and no undetectable variants have been identified.
Its announcement comes a day after Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc confirmed that its diagnostic tests can accurately detect the Omicron variant.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week classified the Omicron variant as a SARS-CoV-2 “variant of concern,” saying it may spread more quickly than other forms.
(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni and Uttaresh.V)