DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS [Abstract]

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

NOTE 1 — DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS:

Chembio Diagnostics, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company” or “Chembio”), develop, manufacture, and commercialize point-of-care diagnostic tests that are used to detect and diagnose diseases. The Company is pursuing three corporate priorities: (1) expand its commercialization, (2) advance its research and development pipeline, and (3) prepare for future growth.

All products that are currently being developed are based on the Company’s patented DPP^® technology, a novel point-of-care diagnostic platform that offers certain customer advantages as compared to traditional lateral flow technology.

The Company’s product commercialization and product development efforts are focused on infectious disease testing and technology collaborations. In infectious disease, the Company is commercializing tests for HIV and Syphilis, Zika virus, and developing tests for malaria, dengue virus, chikungunya virus, ebola, lassa, Marburg, leptospirosis, Rickettsia typhi, Burkholderia pseudomallei, and Orientia tsutsugamushi, individually or as part of fever panel tests. Through technology collaborations, the Company is developing tests for concussion, bovine tuberculosis, a rare disease in collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical, and a biomarker development project in collaboration with AstraZeneca.

Large and growing markets have been established for these kinds of tests, initially in high prevalence regions where they are indispensable for large scale prevention and treatment programs. More generally, the Company believes there is and will continue to be a growing demand for diagnostic products that can provide accurate, actionable diagnostic information in a rapid, cost-effective manner at the point of care.

The Company’s products are sold to medical laboratories and hospitals, governmental and public health entities, non-governmental organizations, medical professionals and retail establishments, both domestically and internationally, under the Company’s STAT PAK^®, SURE CHECK^®, STAT-VIEW^® or DPP^® registered trademarks, or under the private labels of the Company’s marketing partners.

The Company routinely enters into arrangements with governmental and non-governmental organizations for the funding of certain research and development efforts.