US grants $302 million contract to Brisbane bio-tech firm Ellume to produce at-home COVID tests

The United States Department of Defense has awarded a contract worth $US230 million ($302 million) to Brisbane-based biotech firm Ellume to ramp up production of its COVID-19 home test kits.

The money will allow increased production of the kits, boosting the number of tests undertaken in the US by 640,000 tests per day by the end of the year, with 8.5 million kits to be distributed directly by the US Government.

Ellume founder and CEO Sean Parsons, said the contract would include building a bespoke facility in Maryland in the southern US.

“This deal which we’ve struck overnight with the US includes building a facility in the US, which is about three times as large, as well as supplying them with 8.5 million tests, mostly out of…