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Apple Awards $10M to Give Hospitals COVID-19 Testing Kits
The fund will allow COPAN Diagnostics to rapidly accelerate its COVID-19 testing kit supply for hospitals across the US, which have been vital during the pandemic.
Apple recently announced it awarded $10 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund to COPAN Diagnostics to accelerate its supply of COVID-19 supply kits for hospitals across the US.
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The fund will allow COPAN Diagnostics to expand production from several thousand a day to more than one million supply kits by early July. Apple stated that it will support COPAN Diagnostics’ expansion to a larger facility with advanced tools, which is expected to create more than 50 new jobs.
“We feel a deep sense of responsibility to do everything we can to help medical workers, patients, and communities support the global response to COVID-19,” Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, said in the announcement.
“COPAN is one of the world’s most innovative manufacturers of sample collection kits for COVID-19 testing, and we’re thrilled to partner with them so they can expand as we work to address this critical issue for our nation. I couldn’t be prouder of our teams for bringing all of their energy, passion, and innovative spirit to supporting the country’s COVID-19 response.”
Apple will leverage equipment and materials from companies across the US, including Apple-designed tools like K2 Kinetics, based in York, Pennsylvania, and MWES in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
COPAN is involved in infectious disease diagnostics and the company has recently applied its diagnostic expertise to the COVID-19 testing process, Apple said.
In 2013, the company invented flocked swabs, a device consisting of a molded plastic applicator stick that has variable tips coated with Nylon fibers. This allows for quicker uptake and complete extraction of the sample. COPAN’s UTM is the leading transport medium for collection, transport, preservation, and long-term freeze storage of clinical specimens containing viruses.
“We’re excited to forge this new relationship with Apple, whose teams are already making a huge difference with our efforts to scale up the production of our sample collection and transport kits,” said Norman Sharples, CEO of COPAN Diagnostics.
“Collection and transport kits are a critical component in the fight against COVID-19. At COPAN, we’re excited and grateful for this partnership with Apple as our strong beliefs of innovation, quality, and excellence in manufacturing and design are perfectly aligned. Apple’s operational expertise will help us increase delivery of important pre-analytical tools for medical professionals across the country at this critical time.”
Apple has been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company donated tens of millions of dollars toward the global COVID-19 response, such as Global Citizen and America’s Food Fund and designed, tested, and distributed almost 10 million face shields and sourced over 30 million facemasks for healthcare professionals in hard-hit areas.
Apple also developed a COVID-19 symptom-checking website and app along with the CDC,
And released a mobility data trends tool from Apple Maps to track and mitigate the spread of the pandemic.
The app may be useful to governments and health authorities as a foundation for new public policies by showing the change of volume of people driving, walking, or taking public transit during coronavirus.
The tool indicates mobility trends from major cities and 63 countries and regions using aggregated data from Apple Maps. The information is generated by number of requests made to Apple Maps for directions and then the data sets are compared to reflect a change in volume of people driving, walking, or taking public transit.
Apple noted that understanding where people have been and where hotspots arise may help public health officials understand the spread of the novel coronavirus and understand how to mediation the issue.
“Apple has built privacy into the core of Maps from the beginning. Data collected by Maps, like search terms, navigating routing, and traffic information, is associated with random, rotating identifiers that continually reset, so we don’t have a profile of your movements and searches. This enables Maps to provide a great experience, while protecting user privacy,” the company stated.
