On Nov. 19, 2020, the Department of Defense (DoD), in coordination with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), awarded a $12.38 million contract to Siemens Healthineers to expand U.S. based industrial production capacity of its SARS-CoV-2 antigen test, run on the ADVIA Centaur® and Atellica® testing platforms.
This industrial base expansion effort will allow Siemens Healthineers to increase production capacity of the antigen test at its Walpole, Massachusetts manufacturing facility, increasing production capacity from 8.25 million to 50 million tests per month by July 2021, to support domestic COVID-19 testing.
The DoD’s Defense Assisted Acquisition Cell led this effort in coordination with the Department of the Air Force’s Acquisition COVID-19 Task Force. BARDA funded this award through the Health Care Enhancement Act to support domestic industrial base expansion for critical medical resources.