In rapid response to the global need for COVID19 testing, Abbott Laboratories put forth a concerted worldwide effort spanning business functions and sites to design, develop, and share technology, resources, and knowledge. The biologics underpinning Abbott’s portfolio of SARS-CoV-2 antibody and antigen tests were the result of unprecedented coordination between internal discovery, design, development, and operations teams and external academic and industry partners. Sharing of antigens, antibodies, specimens, and know-how allowed Abbott to quickly construct numerous assay prototypes, spanning core lab and point-of-care assay platforms, and to evaluate the specificity and sensitivity of our tests in order to meet the urgent needs of our customers worldwide. Balancing the immediacy of the need to manufacture diagnostic tests at the scale demanded by an emerging pandemic, while ensuring the safety and efficacy of these products, we screened hundreds of combinations of biologics for the capture and detection of viral antigens and antibodies while maintaining simultaneous focus on both performance and manufacturability. The selection of biologics was first and foremost in these processes. From that perspective, several lessons learned during the COVID19 outbreak were: 1) experience with previous emergent infectious diseases was invaluable, 2) coordination of internal discovery efforts across divisions and functional teams was key, and 3) external collaboration with customers and experts enabled access to reagents and specimen panels that were critical to our work.

Biologics discovery and design for Abbott’s portfolio of COVID19 serology and antigen assays spanning core lab and point-of-care settings

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.