October 4, 2021 – OraSure Technologies, Inc. (Bethlehem, PA) announced it was awarded a $109 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), in coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to build additional manufacturing capacity in the United States for InteliSwab COVID-19 rapid tests as part of the nation’s pandemic preparedness plan.
The InteliSwab rapid COVID-19 lateral flow test was granted three EUAs by the FDA in June for professional point-of-care use, prescription (Rx) home use, and over-the-counter (OTC) use.
The federal funding will expand OraSure’s production capacity by 100 million tests annually, by March 2024. An existing OraSure location in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, will be retrofitted to accommodate increased manufacturing and an additional new facility will be added in another U.S. location to be determined.
In addition to this contract, OraSure also has internally funded expansion plans to achieve 120 million tests annually by the second quarter of 2022.