At ETQ, we spend a lot of time thinking about our “customers’ customer.” Today, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, it is conceivable that some of our customers’ customers are, in fact, every single one of us. From life science and healthcare companies of all kinds delivering badly needed supplies and researching potential treatment and vaccine options, to “traditional” manufacturing companies modifying their production lines to build healthcare equipment, our respect and admiration for our customers grows daily.
Periodically, we’ll spotlight some of our customers who are stepping up in a time of tremendous disruption and loss to provide a critical helping hand to the nation. For example, Adaptive Biotechnologies is working in partnership with Amgen to develop a therapeutic to treat or prevent Covid-19. The collaborative effort will leverage “Adaptive’s proprietary immune medicine platform for the identification of virus-neutralizing antibodies with Amgen’s expertise in immunology and novel antibody therapy development,” according to a joint press release.
Also, long-time ETQ customers Medline and Halyard (an Owens & Minor Company) were also mentioned in a recent New York Times article (gated but free access) that detailed the efforts of the federal government to “expedite the shipment to the United States of large quantities of medical supplies procured by private health care providers such as McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, Owens & Minor, Medline and Henry Schein,” the article noted.
Abbott Labs’ high-throughput coronavirus test was recently given Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Abbott’s test delivers positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes, according to the company, and is already in use around the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has added Promega’s amplification reagent GoTaq Probe 1-Step RT-qPCR System to its coronavirus (Covid-19) diagnostic protocol for emergency use. CDC’s assay protocol is used by public health labs and clinical testing labs in the US and globally.
So many of ETQ’s customers are contributing to this massive effort to address the health crisis. We commend all of their work in leading and fighting hard to help all of us in these uncertain times. ETQ looks forward to bringing you more of their stories in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we’d just like to say, “thank you.”
