1. First COVID Test Kit vending machine placed at the Oakland airport. More airports to follow! Also, COVID-19 home test kits will soon be sold via vending machines in cities including NYC, starting this month.

Health company Wellness 4 Humanity is rolling out vending machines stocked with COVID-19 at-home test kits. Saliva-based PCR testing offered at $139 that includes prepaid, FedEx shipping.

The vending machines — set to begin appearing this month in major cities across the US, including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Dallas — will dispense Emergency Use Authorized rapid antigen and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) saliva tests. The saliva tests, which have a 99% accuracy rate, come with a prepaid FedEx shipping label, so they can be sent to the company’s partner lab, with results promised within 48 hours.

Read the full article HERE.

2. Who's the partner lab of Wellness 4 Humanity (company mentioned above)?

META Lab Dx - A lab built to serve other laboratories.

META is a collection of industry experts that came together to create an innovative, diagnostic laboratory that serves other labs. This lab also serves as an R&D laboratory where they develop new assays, new panels, new ways of testing. By doing this - they’re leading the charge into new areas helping other labs.

In response to demand, META Lab Dx has been set up as a COVID overflow lab to help clinical labs maintain TAT (Turn-Around-Time) and clear backlogs. They are offering a flat client bill rate per sample (saliva, swab, and home collection).

3. Best Advice on How to Commercialize a Laboratory Test.

Eureka! Your Research and Development team has found a new biomarker or made some life science-related discovery. Now what? Assuming that you want to make your new finding available to the world, while also monetizing it in some way, there are a few paths forward.

If your discovery is classified as a laboratory test it needs to be performed in a CLIA-accredited medical laboratory that falls under the authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. So far, this probably doesn’t sound like good news, but there is a silver lining. While laboratory tests do need to be approved by the FDA, under certain circumstances it is not required if you decide to validate the test as a laboratory-developed test (LDT). Keep reading the full article HERE.

We wanted to let you know that Lighthouse has a number of great candidates who are ready and willing to help in the fight against coronavirus. We can assist your laboratory with recruiting staff or by adding a temp until things return to normal: Learn More.

We want to take a moment and share details with you about our partnership with Water For Good. Because of our clients, we were able to make donations and 103,364 people in the Central African Republic received a year of clean water!