The Biden administration has inked a deal with the North American arm of a German pharmaceutical company to build a plant in Wisconsin that will produce lateral flow membranes used in rapid diagnostic test kits, including ones used to detect COVID-19. But the facility won’t be built for another three years and so the move won’t help alleviate America’s current test kit shortage.
The Department of Defense (DoD) said on Dec. 29 that it had awarded a $136.7 million contract to MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Darmstadt-based Merck KGaA, for the establishment of nitrocellulose membrane production capacity in the United States to support COVID-19 testing and other needs.
