Brazil approves new brand of COVID-19 self-test

Brazil’s national drug regulator Anvisa today (Feb. 23) approved the sale of another self-test for COVID-19 in the country. The request took 22 days to be fully assessed.

Covid Ag Detect, developed for the quick analysis of a sample collected with a swab by consumers themselves, will be manufactured in the country by Eco Diagnóstica LTDA, a Brazilian firm headquartered in Minas Gerais state.

According to the company, the product should allow consumers to determine whether they have been infected with the novel coronavirus in just 15 minutes. Covid Ag Detect, Anvisa declared, has met all technical criteria considered for the registration, such as safety and reliability of use by laypeople.

In a note, Eco Diagnóstica reported it already has the supplies necessary to start producing Covid Ag Detect today in its plant in the city of Corinto. The first batches should start being delivered to drugstores after the Carnival holiday, early in March.

“The company believes that the self-test comes as an asset in the fight against the coronavirus, working as triage for a possible infection and making it possible for people to isolate in case it comes out positive,” a note from the firm reads.

The self-test, Anvisa stated, may be used from the first to the seventh day after the onset of flu-like symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, running nose, head and body aches). If a person has been in contact with someone known to be infected and shows no symptoms, they must wait five days before self-testing.

In addition to Covid Ag Detect, the firm on February 17 approved the sale of the Novel Coronavírus Autoteste Antígeno, manufactured by CPMH Comércio e Indústria de Produtos Médicos-Hospitalares e Odontológicos.