Quest and Labcorp may be archrivals in the diagnostic testing market, but they appear to agree on at least one thing: the potential demand for quick, at-home testing for women’s sexual health.
The lab giants, in separate agreements announced Thursday, Jan. 8, have added Visby Medical’s newly approved, fully at-home PCR test for sexually transmitted infections to their lineup of direct-to-consumer women’s health offerings.
Consumers can now buy the over-the-counter STI test on the women’s health menu at Quest’s consumer-initiated testing site questhealth.com, alongside routine home tests for pregnancy, thyroid function, urinary tract infections and others. Labcorp offers the test on its Labcorp OnDemand website and its women’s health app subsidiary Ovia Health.
Launched in November, the single-use test includes vaginal swabs and a palm-sized PCR-based testing device. Within 30 minutes, it lets patients know through an app on their smartphone whether they’ve tested positive for chlamydia, gonorrhea or trichomoniasis. Most other at-home STI tests require mailing samples to a lab.
STIs such as chlamydia and gonorrhea are curable with antibiotics but often present with no symptoms. Visby Chief Medical Officer Gary Schoolnik, M.D., said in a press release that a speedier diagnosis can reduce transmission and lower the risk of an STI escalating into pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID causes nearly 100,000 women in the U.S. to become infertile every year, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
“The expansion of this test provides immediate, lab-quality accuracy at home, which can move patients from diagnosis to treatment in a single day, preserving their long-term health,” Schoolnik said in a press release.
Leslie Salzman, D.O., Labcorp’s medical discipline director for consumer health, said in the release that the collaboration with Visby “allows us to offer a fully at-home option that combines accuracy, privacy and convenience” and is “another way we’re meeting people where they are and helping them take control of their health on their own terms.”
Mark Kruzel, M.D., medical director for Quest’s consumer division said the test will “supplement our comprehensive STI offerings” and give women greater options. “It reflects how questhealth.com is empowering individuals to access deeper insights into their health at the time and place that works best for them,” he said.
San Jose, California-based Visby earned FDA clearance for the STI test last March, following an earlier green light for a point-of-care version used by health care professionals.
The test was retailing for $179 on Quest’s website and $159 on Labcorp’s site Thursday. It includes free same-day telehealth care through a third-party vendor if a patient tests positive.
Visby is eyeing an expansion of its over-the-counter test menu to include at-home tests for strep, urinary tract infections and men’s sexual health, the company said last year.