On March 26, 2021, the Department of Defense (DOD), on behalf of and in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services, awarded a contract with a not-to-exceed value of $146.77 million to Puritan Medical Products to increase domestic production capability of foam tip swabs used in critical COVID-19 diagnostic tests.
The global increase in COVID-19 cases continues to impact diagnostic test manufacturers and the supply chains that support specimen collection and testing performance.
This industrial base expansion effort serves as a modification to the previous Puritan contract.
This award will allow Puritan to conduct renovations to the facility and prepare the space for equipment that will increase the company's total production capacity to 250 million foam tip swabs per month in Orlinda, Tennessee by February 2022.
The 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).
This effort was funded through the Health Care Enhancement Act (HCEA) to support domestic industrial base expansion for essential medical resources.
