Jabil Healthcare, a division of St. Petersburg-based Jabil, has partnered with DnaNudge to manufacture its "lab-free" Covid-19 tests that deliver results in one hour.
The Jabil Healthcare "clean room manufacturing facility" is based in Ireland and is slated to produce 1.4 million cartridges per month by 2021. Financial details of the deal were undisclosed.
“The availability of rapid, high-accuracy testing performed at the point of patient specimen collection is a vital tool amid this Covid-19 pandemic that continues to spread,” David Panneton, VP of Jabil's global business units, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to support DnaNudge’s efforts in the UK and globally and to apply our full health care manufacturing and supply chain solution set to meet this critical market demand.”
The test involves placing a swab sample in the cartridge, which extracts the RNA, or the nucleic acid living in all cells. The RNA will be inserted into the NudgeBox, which will then analyze the DNA and provide results in roughly one hour.
The partnership will help London-based DnaNudge complete an order from the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care, which called for 5.8 million tests.
“The value of our CovidNudge technology in helping to meet the needs of the pandemic is being recognized around the world and we knew we needed a trusted partner to enable us to scale delivery and achieve speed to market,” Chris Toumazou, DnaNudge CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “In addition to its deep bench of expertise in mass production of complex technologies, Jabil’s footprint in Ireland and around the world will be vital in helping us accelerate availability of the CovidNudge test globally."
Jabil, while headquartered in St. Pete, has more than 100 locations in 30 countries. The DnaNudge partnership is the latest Covid-fighting action from the company. In June, the company announced it planned to make 1.6 million masks, upping that to 2 billion masks by the fall.
And Jabil isn't the only entity teaming up with a U.K.-based organization to fight the novel coronavirus. In July, the University of South Florida partnered with Ireland-based Shimmer to work on a wearable sensor that will study those who have already had Covid-19.
