The National Independent Laboratory Association (NILA) has issued a statement congratulating its member, Clinical Reference Laboratory (CRL), for its recent advancement in covid-19 testing, a saliva-based covid-19 test. Last month Clinical Reference Laboratory (CRL), one of the largest privately held clinical testing laboratories in the United States, received FDA emergency use authorization for CRL Rapid Response, a saliva-based covid-19 RT-PCR test that can be self-collected at home, at work, or in other settings. CRL Rapid Response is the first large-scale service of its kind focused on the American workforce. The test detects the presence of covid-19 in a saliva sample and was shown in CRL’s EUA studies to be more sensitive and accurate than the covid-19 anterior nasal swab test. Virtually anyone can self-collect an adequate sample for testing, with results available in 24 to 48 hours of receipt at CRL. CRL is currently scaling up capacity to conduct covid-19 tests on a large scale, aiming for 50,000 tests a day. CRL Rapid Response enters the market as the United States continues to face testing supply shortages and individuals experience long wait times for their test results. “If it can be scaled up quickly, this test will increase covid-19 testing capacity and ease the demand on certain testing supplies, such as nasopharyngeal swabs, which NILA member laboratories report have been in short supply throughout the pandemic,” says Mark Birenbaum, PhD, executive director of NILA. “Further, because the samples can be self-collected, CRL Rapid Response stands to dramatically streamline the testing infrastructure, making testing more accessible to employers and institutions that need to reopen safely without sacrificing accuracy.” For more information, visit NILA.
