T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ: TTOO) shares are trading higher premarket on Friday after the company announced it's T2SARS-CoV-2 panel, a molecular diagnostic test that detects SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19 infections, is capable of detecting the Brazil variant which was recently confirmed to be present in the United States.
Similar to variants found in the United Kingdom and South Africa, the Brazil variant contains multiple mutations. There have been worries about whether the current vaccines being administered can combat these mutations with studies ongoing; however, Oxford and AstraZeneca plan to have a new Covid vaccine ready by August to fight the variants.
T2 Biosystem's share price is trading back at levels not seen since March 2019, up 51.25% premarket at $3.63.
“We continue to actively monitor new variants of the COVID-19 virus to confirm that our technology remains a useful and reliable diagnostic tool for the many health care systems and people that need it during this time,” said T2’s President and CEO, John Sperzel.
The Massachusetts-based company said a specific analysis of sequences for the Brazil variant confirmed that the T2SARS-CoV-2 panel should be able to detect the variant with high confidence and reliability.
The panel, which demonstrated clinical sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 100%, provides results in under two hours using an upper respiratory swab sample. The test is run on the company's fully automated T2Dx instrument which can perform seven tests simultaneously and up to 60 samples per day.
