Rapid COVID-19 tests are reselling for as much as $75 a pack, 3 times their normal retail price: report
- Rapid COVID-19 tests are reselling for as much as $75 a pack, Bloomberg reported.
- This is more than three times as much as their normal retail price of $20 to $23.
Rapid at-home COVID-19 test kits are reselling for as much as $75 a pack, which is more than three times their normal retail price.
Bloomberg reported the findings Wednesday.
Kroger and Walmart sell Abbott Laboratories' BinaxNow at-home rapid tests for $23.99 and $19.98.
BinaxNow kits, which include two COVID-19 tests, are now selling for about $75 on various digital marketplaces, seen by Insider and reported by Bloomberg.
New York's attorney general, Letitia James, said in a press release in late December that reports suggested BinaxNow test kits, priced at $14 to $25, were costing up to $70 a pack.
An employee of a New York restaurant group told Bloomberg she and other staff members bought four test kits for $180 — or $45 a kit — from someone who previously got them free from an employer.
A woman in Missouri told Bloomberg she was saving her last coronavirus test kit in case her children showed serious COVID-19 symptoms.
Another parent told Bloomberg that after she saw rapid test kits going for $80 on online community groups, she decided to temporarily keep her child home from school because of the requirement to test before returning.
WeShield, a medical-device supplier, told Bloomberg it had raised costs of BinaxNow kits from below the usual retail prices to about $50 because the company didn't want to face bankruptcy by selling them below the "market" price.
Soaring prices of rapid tests come as the US is reporting a soaring number of coronavirus infections during a wave fueled by the Omicron variant.