GUELPH, Ontario, and Mississauga, Ontario, June 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen), the industry-led organization behind Canada’s Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster, has announced funding for Precision Biomonitoring to support the company’s production of test kits to identify COVID-19.

Precision Biomonitoring has received almost $5 million in funding to work directly with Canadian manufacturers to increase production of its TripleLock™ SARS-CoV-2 Go-Strips, a rapid response test that will allow for the early identification of COVID-19.

Rapid, accurate and available testing for COVID-19 is critical to the measures being undertaken by health authorities in Canada as they work to control the spread of the virus and move towards reopening the economy, ensuring the safety of Canadians as they head back into the workplace. Testing capacity has been an ongoing issue as global demand for test kits coupled with limited domestic supply has created shortages.

“Widespread testing is going to be an important part of our vigilance as Canada continues to flatten the curve. I am happy to see the superclusters stepping up in a big way to leverage their membership and Canada’s strong industrial base as part of this effort. The rapid manufacturing of these point-of-care test kits will help ensure that more Canadians can be tested for COVID-19 in a timely manner,” said the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

“Collaboration among Canada’s advanced manufacturing companies has allowed for a rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic, creating innovative solutions and mobilizing advanced technologies to address the demand for test kits,” said Jayson Myers, CEO at NGen. “The flexibility and adaptability that advanced manufacturing allows has been critically important in addressing the challenges presented by COVID-19, and will continue to be so as governments move to re-open the Canadian economy.”

Leveraging the capabilities of Canadian manufacturers and partners such as Evik Diagnostics, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Shared Value Solutions, McMaster Health Science Centre, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre and the Canadian National Microbiology Lab, Precision Biomonitoring anticipates a production rate capacity of 10,000 units per day or greater.

“Advancing Canadian manufacturing enables us to leverage local capabilities to mitigate manufacturing challenges,” says John Laughlin, CTO at NGen. “We are proud to help drive these collaborative relationships that will position Canada as a world leader in manufacturing point-of-need DNA surveillance and detection tools and ensure that all Canadians, including indigenous peoples, will have adequate access to COVID-19 testing.”

“Developing Canadian manufacturing is not only promising for our response efforts for COVID-19, but also provides a strong foundation as we look to expand into the growing mobile DNA applications market,” says Mario Thomas, CEO, Precision Biomonitoring.

The funding for the project comes from NGen’s commitment to invest $50 million to support companies as they rapidly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by building a Canadian supply of critically needed technologies, equipment, and medical devices.

About NGen - Next Generation Manufacturing Canada

NGen is the industry-led community behind Canada’s most transformative advanced manufacturing projects. NGen members come from every part of the country and cut across Canada’s manufacturing, technology, advanced research, and start-ups sectors. NGen is an objective facilitator of connections and collaboration among its members, identifying opportunities, building capabilities, and supporting advanced manufacturing decisions. NGen’s industry collaborations bring together talent, opportunity, funding, and business know-how to reduce risk and help business leaders make better choices. NGen is Canada’s Supercluster for Advanced Manufacturing, securing funding from public and private sources, including $230 million in matching dollars from the federal government’s Innovation Superclusters Initiative, to support greater private sector investment in advanced manufacturing projects. NGen seeks to add $13.5 billion dollars and 13,500 new jobs to the economy over the next 10 years by growing world-leading advanced manufacturing capabilities in Canada.

About Precision Biomonitoring 

Founded in 2016 by a team of scientists from the University of Guelph’s Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, Precision Biomonitoring provides TripleLock™ onsite eDNA surveillance platform solutions that give customers earlier detection of organisms for a more rapid response. Customers are any organizations that need onsite surveillance and rapid identification of any organism in any environment. The Precision Biomonitoring team is at the forefront of technological innovations in the genomics industry. Our vision is a world where we can identify any organism on the spot, in an instant, anywhere on the planet. 

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