Clinical testing laboratory in Lenexa releases self-collected COVID-19 saliva test

The new saliva test being offered claims to be more accurate that the widely-used anterior nasal swab test as well as more convenient, allowing individuals to self-collect and receive results within 24-28 hours.

LENEXA, Kan. /PRNewswire/ – Today, Clinical Reference Laboratory (CRL), one of the largest privately held clinical testing laboratories in the U.S., announced that it received FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) and is scaling up capacity for CRL Rapid Response, a saliva-based COVID-19 RT-PCR test that can be self-collected at home, work or any other setting.

The test, shown in CRL’s EUA studies to be more sensitive and accurate than the standard COVID-19 anterior nasal swab test, detects the presence of coronavirus in the saliva of the test taker.

In addition, the test is more comfortable and easier to administer, is not “technique dependent” and virtually anyone can self-collect an adequate sample for testing, with test results available in 24-48 hours.

CRL is offering these tests to employers in businesses, universities, government agencies, nursing homes and other organizations.

We currently service employers and insurance companies by processing over 300,000 tests a day and we are aggressively scaling up for mass COVID-19 testing in the next 2-3 weeks, and expect to eventually process over 50,000 tests a day,” Clinical Reference Laboratory CEO, Robert Thompson, said.

In CRL conducted studies of paired samples required for the FDA EUA, the CRL Rapid Response test had 100% sensitivity and specificity ­(higher than any other saliva-based COVID-19 molecular diagnostic test).

The test accurately detected the presence or absence of the virus in known COVID-19 positive and negative patients as compared to only 55% detection using anterior nasal swabs, the common method of self-collection.