NEW YORK ─ Randox Laboratories on Thursday announced it has invested £30 million ($33.7 million) in a specialized lab to enhance its capacity for SARS-CoV-2 testing.
The testing lab is part of a national testing program for COVID-19, which is a collaborative initiative involving government and partners within industry, Randox said.
Peter FitzGerald, managing director of Randox, said in a statement that the national testing program has "increased testing capacity at an unparalleled speed" by launching a network of drive-through testing centers, introducing home testing kits, and with the opening of the specialized lab at the Randox Science Park in Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Development of the laboratory was fast-tracked over four weeks and it represents the first step in a wider diagnostics investment program for the firm. The company also announced that it is recruiting 200 staff members in science, engineering, and manufacturing to support its role within the national testing program. They will be involved in the testing of samples and the construction of 200 diagnostic analyzers to increase the company's capacity for COVID-19 testing, Randox said.
Randox is further building on an existing partnership with Bosch Healthcare Solutions to develop a fully automated coronavirus test for Bosch's point-of-care Vivalytic system that will soon be available for patient testing in Europe and beyond.