The container-based structures company SG Blocks Inc. says it has entered the US test lab market for the novel coronavirus and other diseases through a joint venture with Clarity Diagnostics.
Clarity and SG Blocks will work together under the name Clarity Modular Lab Solutions to craft federal CLIA-certified laboratories. In May, SG Blocks announced a deal with OSANG Healthcare Co. Ltd. to distribute its COVID-19 test.
SG Blocks and Clarity said their venture will “accelerate speed of deployment and redeployment into underserved hot spots of labs certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) that require high connectivity.” The joint venture, the companies said in a statement, “is designed to provide fast, accurate and reliable point of care testing that has been elusive for the poor and working classes.”
“As the nation grapples with COVID-19, the need for continuous testing has emerged, and thus has the need for increasing the number of CLIA-certified labs that can process diagnostic tests at the point of sample collection,” Paul Galvin, CEO of SG Blocks, said in a statement. “We are leveraging our earlier experience with OSANG to form this joint venture and place SG Blocks into the enormous, highly profitable CLIA laboratory market.”
SG Blocks said its D-Tec suite “will be utilized for the modular CLIA labs and was designed to meet the urgent global demand for safe, easily deployable medical response solutions.”
Through the joint venture, SG Blocks said it will have 51% ownership interest in Clarity Modular Lab Solutions. The first modular lab will be constructed near Boca Raton, Florida. SG Blocks identified competitors including Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp. SG Blocks and Clarity said they anticipate establishing modular test labs “in high risk areas, densely populated or regional hubs for rural U.S.”
Writing at Globe Street in January, Galvin asserted: “Compared to traditional forms of construction, container-based building reduces the costs of planning, engineering, and construction. In fact, it yields up to 20% in overall cost savings compared to traditional construction. What’s more? Container-based building raises rental income, since the delivery speed of a given structure is higher.”
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