Clinical Performance of BD Veritor™ Assay Across SARS-CoV-2 Variants

BackgroundDifferent rates of morbidity, mortality, transmission, and immune escape are associated with various strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. With the emergence of new strains during seasonal outbreaks, ensuring that antigen-based immunoassays can detect SARS-CoV-2 infections across identified circulating viral variants is a crucial component of infection control efforts. ObjectiveTo validate the performance of the BD Veritor System for Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Assay (BD Veritor assay) to detect SARS-CoV-2 across variants of concern (VOC) and variants of interest (VOI). MethodsUsing the Illumina NextSeq 2000 Sequencer, viral sequencing was performed on prospectively collected, then frozen, SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positive nasal swabs stored in universal transport media (UTM). Specimens from symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals were included in the study. Using the information obtained from the sequencing analysis, the performance of the BD Veritor System assay was evaluated against the highly sensitive molecular RT-PCR Quidel Lyra SARS-CoV-2 assay for each variant. ResultsThe resulting PPA was 97.4% (95% CI: 86.8, 99.5) for detection of SARS-CoV-2 across all variants identified by Next Generation Sequencing (i.e., WHO-labeled variants Alpha, Delta, Gamma, Iota, Lambda, as well as two other non-labeled variants), with a 100% PPA for five of the six variant labels identified. ConclusionThe results demonstrate the robust performance of the BD Veritor assay in detecting SARS-CoV-2 in clinical nasal specimens in selected variants. As new variants emerge, additional studies will be beneficial to ensure the sustained performance of SARS-CoV-2 assays.