NEW YORK — Coca-Cola bottle manufacturer Southeastern Container (SEC) has begun producing test tubes for use in SARS-CoV-2 testing kits in partnership with Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics, the companies said on Monday.
Enka, North Carolina-based SEC, which is funded and managed by a group of Coca-Cola bottlers, said that its soda bottle preforms — small plastic tubes that are heated and blown into a bottle shape for beverages — were found to be compatible for use as test tubes by Longhorn and US Department of Health and Human Services collaborator Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Cenetron Diagnostics and certain medical product manufacturers now plan to produce SARS-CoV-2 testing kits using Longhorn's PrimeStore Molecular Transport Medium and SEC's preform Coca-Cola bottles as test tubes once sterilization protocols, being developed by Sandia National Laboratories, are complete. The companies said that they aim to make one to two million preform test tubes per week.