The winners of NIH’s Covid-19 Shark Tank contest

Through a “Shark Tank”-esque competition, the NIH has awarded nearly $250 million to a handful of biotechs to develop rapid Covid-19 diagnostics. Gingko Bioworks, Mammoth Biosciences, Quidel, Mesa Biotech, Talis Biomedical, Helix, and Fluidigm were chosen from a pool of about 100 competitors to receive federal funding.

Three of the companies are developing point-of-care tests meant to be processed at pharmacies or doctor’s offices, STAT’s Kate Sheridan writes, and the others are developing lab-based tests.

The goal of the government program, called RAD, is to add millions of tests per day to the U.S.’s current testing capacity by September.