PerkinElmer, With Facilities in Connecticut, Develops Detection Kit for Virus That Causes COVID-19

PerkinElmer, a global company with Connecticut faciities in Branford and Shelton, has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has provided Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the company’s New Coronavirus RT-PCR test.

Clinical laboratories certified under Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) can immediately begin using this kit to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,according to company officials.

The company has 21 offices in the United States including Connecticut, and corporate headquarters in Waltham, MA. The diagnostics manufacturer, with a focus on science and healthcare, serves customers in 190 countries.

“Despite the challenging environment, our employees have demonstrated unwavering commitment over the past two months to combat this global pandemic,” said Prahlad Singh, president and chief executive officer, PerkinElmer. “The breadth of PerkinElmer’s total workflow solution puts us in a unique position to rapidly address the needs of our clinical diagnostics customers.”

In early March, at the height of the pandemic in China, the company noted that its China business had been significantly impacted, pointing out that “while we have yet to see significant disruption outside of China, we are keenly monitoring the recent virus-related developments across the globe, as increased transmission rates globally could further impact our current and future financial performance.”  The company also told investors that “we have been donating instruments, kits, and reagents in regions affected to help combat this growing epidemic.”

With 13,000 employees worldwide, PerkinElmer’s mission is “focused on innovating for a healthier world,” delivering “unique solutions to serve the diagnostics, life sciences, food and applied markets. We strategically partner with customers to enable earlier and more accurate insights supported by deep market knowledge and technical expertise.”

Company officials were not immediately available to provide information as to whether the Connecticut facilities had a role in the development of the detection kit that received Emergency Use Authorization.

Even as the company was working on development of a kit to detect COVID-19, the company was taking steps to limit exposure in its own workplaces.  A message on the corporate website explained that “PerkinElmer has effectively eliminated foreign travel and reduced domestic travel to a bare minimum. In addition, out of precaution due to the high concentration of people at a number of our manufacturing and R&D sites, we have prohibited outside employee access to these sites until further notice. We are also requiring many employees around the globe to use smart technologies to work from home, only allowing entry to our sites to limited authorized, essential personnel.”

Connecticut residents may recall PerkinElmer’s role in the U.S. space program decades ago, when its Optical System unit was based in Danbury.  Among major optical assignments, PerkinElmer received the prime contract to develop the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA in 1977. After the $1.5 billion telescope was finally launched into space in 1990, it was discovered that the Hubble could not achieve its full mission because of design and manufacturing flaws, according to company-histories.com and NASA, although images were received from the telescope and numerous repair and parts replacement missions were made. Those involved in the project have nonetheless described it as the greatest achievement in astronomical history.