Labcon awarded U.S government contract to increase domestic production of pipette tips

Labcon North America, the world's leading manufacturer of Earth Friendly® laboratory disposables, announced today a $59.3 million contract award from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) on behalf of and in coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contract is for the domestic manufacturing expansion of pipette tips and tubes as a part of the supply chain for COVID-19 diagnostic testing.

Labcon's pipette tips and tubes, currently in production, have directly supported researchers developing COVID-19 vaccines while the tubes provide sterile airtight vessels for storage, testing and sample transport. This COVID-19 supply chain effort will allow Labcon to increase production capacity from 100 million to 236 million pipette tips per month. Tube production will increase from 27 million to approximately 58 million tubes per month by October 2025.

This expansion of capacity will occur in Petaluma, California and is expected to create dozens of new jobs in the Northern California region. "We are honored to be given this award at a critical time in the global pandemic and hope this effort by the U.S Government will better position the country for future pandemics," said Jim Happ, President of Labcon North America.

The U.S Department of Defense Assisted Acquisition (DA2) Cell led this effort in coordination with the U.S Department of the Air Force's Acquisition COVID-19 Task Force (DAF ACT). This effort was funded through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA0 to enable and support domestic industrial base expansion for critical medical resources.

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