On Apr. 4, 2020, Mesa Biotech announced the addition of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) to its active influenza clinical trial in China. The coronavirus test development and clinical trial is in collaboration with Dr. Wang Guangfa, head of the Department of Pulmonary Medicine at Peking University First Hospital in Beijing.

The clinical trial results were to be submitted under an ’emergency use’ authorization in both China and the U.S. Currently, regional hospitals, cruise ships, airports, hotels and other locations are being overwhelmed and the requirement to send samples to a reference laboratory for testing, which takes two or more days, is not meeting timely demand.

If successful, Mesa’s coronavirus test may be the first molecular POC test to enable care providers to obtain laboratory-quality results in approximately 30 minutes, facilitating more immediate response to the spread of the coronavirus.