A Tampa startup has donated more than $1 million worth of Covid tests it created to help the Tampa Bay region.
The University of South Florida announced it received the Covid tests from Tampa-based Verséa, which totaled it as $1.1 million in product.
Verséa was founded in 2018, initially to provide hemp-based solutions to physicians who see and treat pain. But in March 2020, company CEO Sean Fetcho and his team found themselves wanting to create a solution for Covid-19. He and his team began working 18-hour days until June to create Covid-19 tests and eventually supplied tests for the 2021 NCAA Final Four competition last March.
Verséa previously mentioned it boosted part of its then 15 full-time employees with interns from the University of South Florida. The donation takes the partnership one step further.
"Verséa is a Tampa-founded and based business, and we both recognize and value the important role world-class educational institutions like USF play in the future of the region,” Fetcho said in a statement. “As a high-growth integrated health care company focused on innovative therapeutics and diagnostics that help improve people's lives, we are happy to be able to support the safety and well-being of USF students, faculty and staff."
The tests will be provided across all three of USF's campuses to give students at-home tests.
“USF is committed to the health and well-being of our students, and we are always interested in creative ways to achieve that goal,” Donna Petersen, USF’s chief health officer, said in a statement. “Verséa’s generous gift of Covid-19 test kits will help us help our students take care of themselves and protect others around them.”
While the tests are intended for students, USF faculty and staff can also use them. USF officials hope it will help mitigate the spread of Covid as the school enters into cold and flu season.
"We are grateful to Verséa for this gift that helps keep our students, as well as our USF and Tampa communities, safer and healthier,” said USF Foundation CEO Jay Stroman in a statement.
The university has also innovated on its own Covid-19 solutions. It created a comprehensive coronavirus-tracking map that can be filtered by ZIP code; invested over $1 million in coronavirus-related research projects; created an "electronic nose" that could suss out biochemicals created by Covid-19 and created 3D printed nasal swabs to help with swab shortages for testing.
