#FDA issues emergency authorization for NBA-funded COVID-19 test

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A man gets tested for COVID-19 at an NBA basketball testing site in Orlando, Florida.
Ashley Landis/AP

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization Saturday for a saliva-based COVID-19 test funded by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association that is a fraction of the price of the current exam for the virus.

Known as SalivaDirect and developed by scientists at Yale University, the test will cost between $15 to $20, according to ESPN.

Researchers at Yale tested SalivaDirect on a group that included NBA players and staff, comparing it to results from nasal swab tests also taken by the same group. The results matched in the majority of cases although the research has not yet been peer-reviewed, ESPN reported.

Another saliva test, developed at a Rutgers University lab in April, cost consumers up to $150, said Andrew Brooks, an associate professor at Rutgers and chief operating officer of RUCDR Infinite Biologics, the lab that developed the test for the virus.