U of I's saliva test did not receive emergency authorization, FDA says
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the saliva-based coronavirus test developed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign did not receive emergency use authorization, contradicting an announcement Gov. J.B. Pritzker made in August.
"The University of Illinois is not authorized under an umbrella emergency use authorization, and they have not had an emergency use authorization," an FDA spokesman told the Chicago Tribune.
In August, Pritzker touted the test as potential "game-changer."
University students, faculty and staff on the campus, roughly 55,000 people, are required to get tested twice a week by spitting into a cup.
"We're routinely running 10,000 tests a day," Marty Burke, a chemistry professor and lead researcher on the saliva test project, said in September. "And you're getting the results back in hours, not days."
The university can continue to administer its saliva-based test but had to change the language it uses regarding FDA regulation, according to the Chicago Tribune report.
The university blamed the situation on confusion over FDA protocols and said it believed the saliva-based test had earned emergency use authorization through a study comparing it with a separate FDA-authorized test developed by Yale University researchers, the Chicago Tribune report said.
• Daily Herald staff writer Jake Griffin contributed to this report.