Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics to Produce Transport Tube Together with SiO2 Materials Science

SiO2 Materials Science and Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics form a partnership.

FREMONT, CA: Transfer tubes and vials are used to store and transport biological products in a safe manner. The transparent polypropylene (PP) vials allow unobstructed viewing of the sample. The vials are shatter-proof and may be exposed to freezing temperatures. Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics, an innovative molecular tool, assay, and vaccine development company, and SiO2 Materials Science, a privately held advanced materials science company, join hands to manufacture and distribute PrimeStore MTM in SIO2's proprietary 12 millimeter sample transport tubes. The transport tubes will enable extensive laboratories with a high rate of sample testing to pool tenfold the number of samples using a tenth of the materials now used. SiO2 manufactures the sample transport tubes, which are currently available to laboratories for testing COVID-19, influenza, and other common viruses.

"We take immense pride in our partnerships, and our collaboration with SiO2 is no different. Our companies have come together to meet the needs of virus testing today and prepare for the next pandemic. Si02's production capabilities are a key reason why we're working with them; they have the ability to produce millions of tubes per month," says Jeff Fischer, President of Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics. "By combining our PrimeStore MTM liquid with SiO2's 12-millimeter test tube, labs have the ability to test a patient for multiple viruses one tube can be used to test a patient for COVID-19, influenza A, and influenza B at the same time."

Viral testing was necessary throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to identify new cases and analyze the virus's impact on the worldwide population, inspiring laboratories to ramp up testing volumes for COVID-19 and future virus requirements. To bolster this trend, Longhorn and SiO2 have partnered to combine SiO2's 12-millimeter test tube with Longhorn's PrimeStore MTM, a patented, FDA-cleared sample collecting system that inactivates RNA, mRNA, and DNA infections.

Apart from testing numerous viruses in a single tube, laboratories may utilize the test findings to subtype each virus and determine whether strains of COVID-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and other viruses are prevalent within a certain population. This enables the US government to monitor viral trends to deploy proper testing and virus prevention.

"We reached out to Longhorn in February because we view their sample collection technology as first-in-class when it comes to inactive sample testing. With the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine, now is the time for us to join together to offer a new solution for virus testing at high volumes," says Lawrence Ganti, President and Chief Business Officer at SiO2 Materials Science. "We can produce up to two and a half million tubes per week, so combining our manufacturing with Longhorn's technology makes sense for the future of virus testing."

Longhorn has increased its operations from 50,000 to 100,000 tubes of PrimeStoreMTM per month before March 2020 to weekly shipments of more than 2 million tubes at the peak of COVID-19 in the United States to assist the federal government in expanding its testing capacity.