In a push to bolster COVID-19 diagnostic testing, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a $79.9 million contract to Premix, Inc. this week, funding new onshore production capacity for plastic resin used in tests’ pipette tips.
This will boost future supply chain demands and other critical diagnostic activities, enabling the possibility of more than 200 million COVID-19 PCR tests to be produced monthly by September 2025 from a facility in Gaston County, N.C. Funding finished out industrial base expansion efforts made through a Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) Area of Interest first opened in February 2021, which sought to rapidly mature and scale specific manufacturing capabilities within the diagnostic testing supply chain.
That chain includes everything from raw materials to components and equipment used to produce analyzers, reagents, test kits, and other diagnostic materials for diagnostic testing of COVID-19 and other diseases. This effort was led by the DoD’s Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) in partnership with the Department of the Air Force’s Acquisition COVID-19 Task Force (DAF ACT). All funds were pulled from the American Rescue Plan Act.