LOS ANGELES, April 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- COVID-19 testing startup Curative Inc. and Gothams announced it has signed an agreement with the U.S. Air Force to deploy its FDA-authorized oral fluid tests and comprehensive testing service to U.S. military personnel around the world. Broad testing is critical to our nation’s ability to understand the COVID-19 pandemic, maintain operational readiness and restart the American economy. In this initial agreement, Curative will rapidly establish a new laboratory facility, fully operational this week, which will process up to 50,000 tests per day for the presence of COVID-19. In future phases of this agreement, Curative will establish eight testing locations across the U.S. to support testing for the U.S. population.
Curative’s oral fluid tests have been demonstrated in clinical studies to have equivalent sensitivity to nasopharyngeal (NP) swab tests. Unlike NP swab tests, the Curative test does not create an exposure risk for healthcare workers during sample collection and requires less Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), allowing it to be utilized by other front-line workers. Curative’s test uses a different supply chain than NP swab tests, so it can be scaled rapidly and does not put any further demands on the already overstressed NP swab supply chain.
Curative has tested more than 75,000 people for COVID-19 and is currently processing approximately 6,000 test results per day in Los Angeles. Curative tests have an average turnaround time of 24 hours and the company is currently producing 20,000 collection kits per day. As part of this agreement with the Air Force, each Curative lab will have a daily capacity to examine 50,000 tests per day. Currently Curative has the capacity to scale to a network of 10 labs across the country for a total of 500,000 tests per day.
“Through our work with the City and County of LA, we have helped thousands of people access COVID-19 testing and have demonstrated an ability to scale our testing capacity quickly and efficiently,” said Fred Turner, CEO and founder of Curative. “Our oral fluid test reduces the strain on PPE and existing testing supply chains while being accurate and easy to use. We’re proud to be working with the U.S. military to rapidly scale this test to our global Armed Forces and beyond and are exceptionally thankful for Assistant Secretary Dr. Will Roper’s leadership in moving quickly to making testing widely available to save lives and restart the economy.”
Curative worked with private contractor Gothams to establish a robust distribution channel that has enabled the company to rapidly scale its testing capacity. Through a collection of former Special Operations Command personnel, the Gothams team helped Curative build out testing capacity and establish a relationship with the U.S. Department of Defense that will bring its oral fluid COVID-19 testing service to the U.S. Armed Forces.
About Curative
Curative Inc. was founded to develop tests for sepsis in January 2020 and pivoted to COVID-19 in early March 2020 upon realizing the urgent need for test development and production in the United States. Curative is backed by Deep Tech venture capital firm DCVC and is currently operational within a CLIA-approved lab in Los Angeles, CA. Founded by Fred Turner and comprised of a team of doctors, researchers, robotics engineers, and health industry experts, Curative is rapidly scaling its simple-to-use oral fluid COVID-19 tests to reach the groups most in need of testing. For more details on Curative, please visit www.curativeinc.com.
About Gothams
Gothams acts as a force multiplier for clients building traction in the aerospace and defense sector. We work alongside our clients as one team to define strategy, outperform the competition, and deliver results. With exceptional people and an international presence, Gothams combines global perspective and industry expertise to help clients achieve their most ambitious goals. For more details on Gothams, please visit www.gothams.com.
Contact:
curative@bulleitgroup.com