April 17, 2020 / Kelsy Ketchum
Abbott Laboratories wants to ramp up production to at least 5 million tests in April, including COVID-19 diagnostic and serology tests, the company said on a first quarter earnings call on Thursday.
The company committed to manufacturing 50,000 rapid point-of-care diagnostic tests per day beginning in April, and according to President and CEO Robert Ford, the company has at least met that goal every day so far and has beaten the number several days. He added that Abbott aims aiming to manufacture 2 million of the tests by June.
In addition to its molecular tests, Abbott also announced a coronavirus serology test for the detection of antibodies. The company intends to ship 4 million serology tests in April, and ramp capacity up to 20 million tests per month starting in June, Ford said on the conference call. He added that Abbott has received orders for about 1 million of the antibody test.
