On Jul. 2, 2020, in response to the continuing need for more COVID-19 diagnostic tests, the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, announced that it had begun working with Poba Medical in northern Arizona to produce 10,000 coronavirus test kits per month.

Poba Medical is in the same industrial park near the Flagstaff airport as TGen’s Pathogen and Microbiome Division, the institute’s infectious disease branch, also known as TGen North, where TGen’s efforts against the new coronavirus is centered.

This partnership is helping TGen North fill the gaps in Arizona’s testing systems by focusing on highly vulnerable and underserved groups across the state, including: tribal, indigent and psychiatric health services, county jails, front-line medical workers at community healthcare centers, and as needed for the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS).

A maker of catheters and thermoplastic balloons for a variety of interventional devices and surgical applications, Poba Medical realized that they had extra capacity in their cleanroom to accommodate TGen’s test kit assembly, and without hindering any of their other ongoing medical equipment manufacturing.

Poba Medical, which opened in Flagstaff in January 2019, serves a range of global customers, from startups to large multi-national companies. TGen is its only COVID-19 test kit assembly customer.