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Amazon is selling its own FDA-approved COVID-19 test kit directly to consumers for $39.99 each as retail giant continues march into healthcare industry
- Kit will cost $39.99 and may be available via one day shipping in certain areas across the U.S.
- People can swab their own nose at home, then send kit back to lab for testing
- A part of a rise in at-home medical testing after research and development went into these tests during COVID
- Amazon continues to make grounds in the medical industry after launching Amazon Pharmacy last month
Amazon is selling its own at-home COVID-19 test kit directly to consumers.
The kit, which received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in March 2021, will cost $39.99.
Kits come with a swab kit and a prepaid shipping label to be returned to an Amazon lab for analysis with some kits available via one-day shipping through Prime, reported STAT News.
Results of the tests will later be available of AmazonDX.com, the companies diagnostics page.
While the pandemic nears its end, at home testing kits for COVID-19 and other viruses that can be tested for via a simple nose swab are only becoming more commonplace.
The Amazon COVID-19 test kit costs $39.99, and is accessible via one day shipping in certain areas. The kit appears to have been removed from the stores website at some point on Wednesday
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp increase in at-home medical care over the past 15 months.
There are already other non-Amazon branded at-home COVID-19 test kits available on the online retailer, all costing around $90 to $100, more than double the price of Amazon’s test.
At-home testing was also used by many colleges and universities last year as kids returned to school after summer break.
Many required students to swab themselves at home and ship their test to a lab in order to come to campus for the fall and spring semesters, along with taking regular tests while living on campus.
There are also other forms of at-home testing that have risen to prominence during the pandemic, like at home colon caner screening.
Some experts are also hopeful that gains made over the past month in developing at-home tests will make at-home testing common place for even more viruses, like the common flu.
It comes as Amazon undergoes an expansion into the health care world.
In March, the company made Amazon Care, originally available to its own employees, available for other companies.
Patients can have victual meetings with doctors and can even get nurses dispatched to their homes for a physical exam or to draw blood.
Additionally, Amazon Pharmacy was launched earlier this month, a service which delivers drugs to people at home for a price generally lower than average.
According to Bloomberg, six-month prescriptions will be offered to consumers for as little as $6.
Because most insurance companies do not cover six-month prescriptions, the program is targeting uninsured and people who have insurance but can afford to pay out-of-pocket.
The company is joining other retailer including Costco, Kroger and Walmart in offering prescription drugs at low prices to consumers in hopes of getting them to buy other products.
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