Walgreens, Aegis Sciences expand COVID-19 testing

Walgreens is expanding its partnership with Aegis Sciences for the performance of COVID-19 drive-thru testing. With the expansion, Walgreens will be able to offer additional testing capacity and speedy turnaround times at more than 3,000 locations this month, with plans for more growth in the coming months. 

“The expanded collaboration between Aegis Sciences and Walgreens further builds on our commitment to improve access to COVID-19 testing in the communities we serve,” said Rick Gates, Walgreens senior vice president of pharmacy. “With vaccine inventory still very limited, testing remains one of the best defenses against COVID-19 and the opportunity to stop further community spread.”

Aegis began offering COVID-19 testing in April 2020 and has worked to scale up its testing capacity throughout the pandemic. Last fall, the company participated in the National Institute of Health’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative and received a grant from NIH to expand its testing capacity to 60,000 tests per day. Now, the company is able to carry out more than 100,000 daily tests with a targeted turnaround of 24 hours or less. 

“Aegis Sciences and Walgreens share a common goal: to provide nationwide access to fast and accurate COVID-19 testing. Aegis’s Real Time RT-PCR testing is the diagnostic gold standard with turnaround time of less than 24 hours,” said Dr. Frank Basile, CEO of Aegis Sciences. “We are excited to continue expanding our relationship over the coming months, offering this needed testing in more Walgreens locations and providing more Walgreens customers access to fast and accurate COVID-19 testing.”