On Dec. 20, 2020, the Department of Defense (DOD), in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract to Anatrace Products, LLC. to support increased testing demands for COVID-19. COVID-19 diagnostics requires the key reagents Polyadenylic Acid (Poly A), Guanidinium Thiocyanate (GTC), and Proteinase K (Pro K) to process samples. Supply chain analysis has identified the severe impact of the limited availability of these reagents on laboratories preparing samples for SARS-CoV-2 testing.
This industrial base expansion effort, with a not-to-exceed value of $4.8 million, will allow Anatrace to increase production capacity for the three key extraction reagents (Poly A, GTC and Pro K) at their facility in Holland, Ohio. This expansion initiative will increase their current production 10-fold, with production activities beginning January 2021. Anatrace anticipates full production increases for Poly A (increase to at least 1,600 grams) and Pro K (increase to at least 100 grams) by July 2021 and for GTC (increase to 25,000 kgs) by September 2021.
DOD’s Defense Assisted Acquisition (DA2) Cell led this effort in coordination with the Department of the Air Force’s Acquisition COVID-19 Task Force (DAF ACT). The effort was funded through the Health Care Enhancement Act (HCEA) to enable and support domestic industrial base expansion for critical medical resources.