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At-home COVID tests mean more U.S. manufacturing jobs

Australian company to soon announce location of U.S. manufacturing plant
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As the nation grapples with the grim milestone of half a million deaths due to the pandemic, an over-the-counter (OTC), in-home COVID-19 test is on the horizon.

The test, produced by Australia-based Ellume, detects infection by locating antigens, which are proteins produced by the virus.

The federal government recently announced a $231.8 million contract with Ellume. In the coming weeks, the company is expected to announce the location of its U.S. manufacturing facility.

It’s projected the company’s U.S. manufacturing will generate 1,000 jobs. By year’s end, the facility is expecting to produce 19 million tests per month.

“Ellume will be delivering 100,000 tests per day from the Australian factory until the U.S. plant is up and running,” Sarah Bortman, a company spokeswoman tells WorkingNation.

Ellume plans to deliver 20 million home tests to the U.S. within the first half of the current year. As part of its contract with the Department of Defense, 8.5 million Ellume tests are designated for use by the federal government.

Ellume’s is the first OTC, in-home test approved for sale in U.S. stores by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It includes a sterile nasal swab, a dropper, processing fluid, and a Bluetooth-connected analyzer for use with a smartphone app. Users follow instructions for taking the test by watching a video via the app.

(Photo: Ellume)

The test provides results within 15 minutes. Results can be shared with health care providers through a secure cloud connection.

Because of the possibility of false negatives, company officials do not consider the test a stand-alone solution.

Awaiting FDA Approval

San Diego-based Quidel Corporation is awaiting FDA approval for its own over-the-counter, at-home test. The company already received approval last year for six COVID tests used across a variety of diagnostic equipment found in hospitals and medical labs.

Quidel recently announced a new facility in nearby Carlsbad that should be operational in the second half of this year. The company is currently seeking Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its QuickVue test to be sold directly to consumers.

Quidel is actively hiring to fill open positions including engineers, chemists, technicians, manufacturing, purchasing, sourcing, and support services.

As of Monday, the U.S. had completed more than 323 million COVID-19 tests, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.