The Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded $194.5 million across two contracts for COVID-19 test kits and pipette tips.
The awards, made in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), were funded via the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to support domestic industrial base expansion for essential medical resources.
Per the DOD, a $192.5 million pact was awarded to Nalge Nunc International Corporation (Nalge) to increase domestic manufacturing of the pipette tips used for COVID-19 sample collection and test processing. It will enable Nalge to increase monthly production capacity in North Carolina to 160 million pipette tips by August 2024.
Meanwhile, Luminostics secured a $2 million contract to increase domestic production capacity of Clip COVID-19 Point-of-Care (POC) test kits capable of detecting COVID-19 infection utilizing a nasal swab specimen sample and an immunoassay kit authorized by the Food and Drug Administration under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for use in POC facilities.
According to the DOD, the industrial base expansion initiative allows Luminostics to increase test kit production capacity to 3.3 million test kits monthly by March 2022 — via rapid molding and cutting devices in Palo Alto, California.