Apple Lends Manufacturing Help as Nasal Swab Maker COPAN Diagnostics Ships 15 Million Kits

Apple awarded $10 million (roughly Rs. 72 crore) to COPAN and sent engineers to help revamp production process.

By Reuters | Updated: 22 February 2021 17:04 IST

Apple Lends Manufacturing Help as Nasal Swab Maker COPAN Diagnostics Ships 15 Million Kits

With support from Apple’s Fund, COPAN Diagnostics has shipped more than 15 million COVID-19 test kits

Highlights

Apple did not say whether the 1-million-kit-per-week goal had been hit
COPAN had increased its production by nearly 4,000 percent
The firms are looking to create about 50 new jobs in Southern California

Apple said on Monday nasal swab maker COPAN Diagnostics has shipped 15 million COVID-19 sample collection kits to hospitals in California, Texas and other US states, bolstered by manufacturing help from the tech giant.

Apple awarded $10 million (roughly Rs. 72 crores) to the Murrieta, California-based company in May last year and sent engineers to help revamp the production process at a time when shortages of testing supplies had slowed efforts to track the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The iPhone maker had initially aimed to help COPAN go from making several thousand kits per week to 1 million kits a week, with the firms also looking to create at least 50 new jobs in Southern California.

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Apple did not say on Monday whether the 1-million-kit-per-week goal had been hit, but said COPAN had increased its production by nearly 4,000 percent, opened a new facility and hired 250 employees.

"The driver behind that was that everybody wanted to make a difference within a time frame where we could make a difference," Normal Sharples, COPAN's chief executive, said in a statement.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

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