NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The Department of Defense has awarded more than $23 million to three firms for the development of a platform and assays to detect biological warfare agents, the agency announced last week.
BioFire Diagnostics, Focus Diagnostics, and IQuum will share the $23.1 million cost-plus-fixed-fee multiple award task order contract being awarded through the US Army to develop a US Food and Drug Administration-cleared diagnostic platform and related FDA-cleared biological warfare agent in vitro diagnostic assays.
It is unclear how the award will be divvied among the three firms or what the technology basis for the platform and assays will be. On deadline, BioFire, Focus, and IQuum did not respond to requests for comments from GenomeWeb Daily News.
The development work is anticipated to be completed by Feb. 1, 2023, DoD said.
In September BioFire was awarded a contract for up to $27.4 million by the Defense Logistics Agency. Formerly called Idaho Technology, the company's lead technology is the FDA-cleared PCR system called FilmArray.
Focus Diagnostics, part of Quest Diagnostics, develops infectious disease testing products. IQuum develops molecular diagnostics.