A Nashville lab company that has been processing many of the state’s COVID-19 tests is now getting help from the Trump administration to further expand.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is investing $6.5 million in two commercial labs, including Aegis Sciences. The firm based in MetroCenter expects to be able to quadruple its current capacity and process 60,000 samples a day by the end of September.
Aegis launched COVID-19 testing in April based on a request from the Tennessee Department of Health. The state offered to pay for as many tests as Aegis could process, and the state has since paid millions of dollars to the company, which receives $100 per test.
The money from the federal government will go toward purchasing equipment from Thermo Fisher used to process samples. HHS is also stepping in to make sure the lab has a supply chain of swabs and testing chemicals.
With the expansion, Aegis says its COVID-19 lab will span 18,000 square feet and employ 300 people. Aegis CEO Frank Basile says in a statement that the money will give the company “the confidence to accelerate investment” in expanding its COVID‐19 testing.
The other lab company to win the federal government’s assistance is Sonic Healthcare USA based in Austin, which is the parent company for several commercial labs including AEL based in Memphis. The Metro Public Health Department recently stopped working with AEL because of its persistently slow turnaround times.
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