2 Apr 2020
Spanish-based multinational with product portfolio in the UK making laboratory space at its headquarters available for test analysis work, and assisting with manufacture of ventilators.
Animal health firm Hipra is making biotechnology facilities and equipment available to health authorities fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Spanish-based multinational firm, which has a broad UK product portfolio across farm and companion animals, is providing nearly 700 sq m of its laboratory facilities for analysis of samples.
It is also working in a consortium to help manufacture medical ventilators with 3D printers.
The firm has reached an agreement with health authorities that will allow principal hospitals in the Spanish province of Girona to use facilities equipped with the latest PCR diagnostic technology.
It is hoped this will streamline management and production of test results for SARS-CoV-2.
Spain is second only to Italy in the number of people who have died to date from COVID-19. Hipra had just finished – and was about to open – the new laboratories at its Amer headquarters.
In a statement, the company said: “As an animal health company, for us it is a duty and an act of responsibility to make use of all the resources we have to help preserve public health in such exceptional times, hence the need to collaborate by giving over our new diagnostic centres.”
Samples will be processed in accordance with international protocols, and strict biosecurity and containment measures, with staff from local hospitals and biotechnology start-ups moving into the laboratories to conduct COVID-19 test analysis.
The collaboration will last an initial two to three weeks, but could be extended.
Hipra is also producing components for the manufacture of medical ventilators through 3D printing, in a partnership with other companies and institutions.