The Big Ten Conference announced Wednesday that it has partnered with Biodesix, Inc., a leading diagnostic company with a focus on lung disease, and Quidel Corporation, the manufacturer of the FDA-authorized SOFIA 2 SARS rapid antigen test.

According to a release, Biodesix will oversee and manage the onsite testing of the Quidel antigen test.

“The partnership with Biodesix and Quidel is an important step toward achieving our mission of keeping our student-athletes, and the communities that support them, healthy and safe,” Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said in a release. “The data we are scheduled to collect, and the research component of this partnership, will provide major contributions to all 14 Big Ten institutions as they study COVID-19 and attempt to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) among wider communities.”

Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta said Sept. 17 that Big Ten universities will collectively share the cost of rapid COVID-19 tests. An exact cost for each school as part of this partnership has not been disclosed.

The 2020 Big Ten football season is scheduled to begin Oct. 24. The conference initially announced on Aug. 11 that all fall sports seasons in the conference had been postponed because of ongoing concerns with COVID-19. Then on Sept. 16, the Big Ten announced that its presidents and chancellors had unanimously voted to play a football season this fall. The availability of daily antigen testing was cited by the conference as a key reason for why a season could take place.

All athletes, coaches, and other staff members involved with the team will receive daily antigen testing.

Testing for football programs will begin Wednesday. Biodesix administrators will be on site this week at each of the 14 Big Ten campuses, coinciding with the first shipment of the rapid antigen testing kits from Quidel.  Biodesix and its designated contractor, Maxim Healthcare Staffing Services, Inc., will assume all day-to-day sample collection and surveillance testing responsibilities.

“Along with its medical and scientific capabilities as a certified laboratory, Biodesix is committed to helping the Big Ten meet the testing requirements and reporting protocols established by the medical subcommittee and adopted by the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors (COP/C),” Dr. Jim Borchers, Head Team Physician, The Ohio State University, and co-chair of the Big Ten Conference Return to Competition Task Force medical subcommittee, said in a release. “Quidel’s rapid antigen testing technology represents the ability to perform COVID-19 surveillance testing on a large scale with prompt results.”

All Big Ten Conference student-athletes and staff personnel involved in close contact sports competition will be administered Quidel’s rapid antigen surveillance test prior to every practice and game. Maxim Healthcare Staffing Services personnel will administer the test on-site.

All 14 Big Ten universities will name their Chief Infection Officer, who will oversee the collection and reporting of data for the Big Ten Conference.

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“We are pleased to be partnering with the Big Ten to provide daily testing for its student-athletes, while also expanding the largest research initiative into asymptomatic individuals,” Douglas Bryant, president and CEO of Quidel Corporation, said in a release.  “In addition to supporting the return to play for student-athletes, this research is key to understanding the virus and improving the testing algorithm to defeat it.”

Presumptively positive results of antigen testing for Big Ten athletes and others included in the team testing protocols will be referred to their member institution’s health staff for confirmatory PCR testing, the Big Ten said in a release.

Each university’s Chief Infection Officer will report confirmed positive cases to the medical subcommittee of the Big Ten Conference Return to Competition Task Force.

Decisions to alter or postpone practice or competition will be based on tests and population positivity rates of each institution’s teams. Teams must stop regular practice and competition for a minimum of seven days and reassess metrics until improved if the team’s positivity rate is greater than five percent or if the population’s positivity rate is greater than 7.5 percent.

Additionally, Biodesix will perform validity PCR testing on a percentage of anonymous samples from individuals with negative antigen test results to provide data for the medical subcommittee to ensure that the rapid antigen tests are performing in accordance with expectations.