The Tecan Group announced that the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded a USD 32.9 million (CHF 29.8 million) contract to support the buildup of U.S. pipette tip manufacturing for COVID-19 testing. Disposable pipette tips are a key component for molecular tests for SARS-CoV-2 and other assays performed on fully automated, high throughput systems. Manufacturing equipment used in producing these pipette tips is highly specialized, requiring fully automated production lines capable of precise molding and multiple inline visual quality testing. The funding will support Tecan in launching new production capacity in the U.S. via an expedited process. This contract award is part of the ongoing collaboration between DoD and HHS, led by the Department’s Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF) and funded through the CARES Act, to enable and support domestic industrial base expansion for critical medical resources. The new U.S. manufacturing lines are expected to start producing pipette tips in fall 2021, supporting an increase in domestic testing capacity of several million tests per month by December 2021.