UAE-based company G20 has partnered with US company PharmXGen to exclusively supply and distribute the latter’s Covid-19 rapid antigen tests in the Middle East and North Africa. The intranasal tests can deliver results in three to ten minutes with 100% efficiency. These tests have approvals in the US, UK and Germany, among other countries.

Health services provider Affinity Empowering is set to deploy Covid-19 testing programmes at zero cost in public congregate settings under Operation Expanded Testing (OET), which is an agreement with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Affinity is managing the OET programme on behalf of Eurofins’ unit Clinical Enterprise. The company noted that the latest move is intended to address the rising Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant cases across the US.

Siemens Healthineers has raised its full-year 2021 guidance based on estimations for sales of rapid Covid-19 antigen tests, which are expected to fetch nearly $1.1bn (€1bn). The company said that revenue from these tests peaked in the third quarter of the fiscal year 2021, reaching approximately $712m (€600m). In addition, free cash flow more than doubled in the quarter to $1bn (€852m), driven by sales of rapid Covid-19 antigen tests.