First Approved In-Home HIV Test: OraSure's - Expectations have been falling as the newly launched product just didn't take off as quickly as hoped

First Approved In-Home HIV Test: OraSure's Fall From Grace Offers Opportunity

By Jake King

As investors packed up in search of more exciting prospects, shares of OraSure Technologies (OSUR) have been slashed in half since their highs in mid-2012, in fact, setting a new 52-week low this month. OraSure received approval for the first in-home HIV diagnostic last June (called OraQuick In-Home HIV), a product that Magic Johnson called a game-changer

Magic Johnson Partners With OraSure on HIV Awareness Campaign

(The Root) -- "No, I'm not on any magical drugs. I've been saying that for 21 years," Magic Johnson told a small crowd of journalists and HIV- and AIDS-prevention workers over lunch at New York City's Gramercy Park Hotel on Wednesday.

The NBA champion and star of the Los Angeles Lakers, after receiving the life-changing news that he was HIV-positive, announced his status to a gaggle of television cameras in 1991. Since then he has worked to change the way the world perceives people who carry the virus.

OraSure CEO Douglas Michels on the company’s partnership with Magic Johnson and its new rapid HIV test that is now available for in-home use. 

OraSure Technologies Inc. (OSUR) Stock: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=OSUR

Ask for the Kit insert before your next HIV and AIDS test.

READ: In Home HIV Tests Now Available to Mislead http://bit.ly/Q8olNQ

But initially, Johnson had to seek someone to guide him through the process of dealing with his disease, both emotionally and physically. Now he is an international ambassador for HIV and AIDS prevention, the self-proclaimed "face of this disease," and he's endorsing the at-home HIV test called OraQuick.

Produced by the pharmaceutical company OraSure, the test is the first FDA-approved rapid HIV test, which produces results in 20 minutes. It retails at pharmacies like CVS or Duane Reade, as well as online for about $39. OraQuick, which has been used by health care providers for just over a decade, uses a mouth swab to detect antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2 in oral fluid. And while this seems to be great news for people who would rather learn their status in their own bathroom, according to the Food and Drug Administration, the test does come with a caveat.