February 5, 2021 – Quidel Corporation (San Diego, CA) announced the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Carlsbad, California that will be dedicated to the production of Quidel’s QuickVue product line.
The 128,000 square-foot facility will be the company’s highest-volume production plant in the world and begins operations in the second half of 2021 with a mission to produce 600 million QuickVue SARS rapid antigen tests per year for the detection and diagnosis of COVID-19 infections.
Quidel plans to install multiple manufacturing lines at the Carlsbad facility and hire approximately 400 new employees with a mission to scale the company’s operations from 50 million QuickVue tests per year to 50 million tests per month at full capacity, including non-COVID-19 diagnostic assays currently in-market or under development.
The company is actively hiring to fill open positions including engineers, chemists, technicians, manufacturing, purchasing, sourcing and support services.
Quidel received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its QuickVue SARS Antigen Test for COVID-19 in December. The company’s QuickVue lateral-flow technology is visually read by the user and provides results in 10 minutes from nasal swab samples. Initial applications for QuickVue COVID-19 tests range from hospitals and physician offices to schools and pharmacies. Quidel is seeking EUA for a new QuickVue At-Home COVID-19 Test for over-the-counter sale directly to consumers.