Empower Clinics (CBDT.C) announced the expansion of their Dallas, Texas, Kai medical laboratory to meet the anticipated growth projections in COVID-19 testing requirements for the United States, Canada and other international markets today, according to a press release.
Empower acquired the Kai Medical lab in October, 2020 to push the company’s COVID-19 national testing programs for enterprise clients, including movie and TV studios, businesses and the travel industry. They immediately saw some growth in their first quarter and by Q4 their COVID-19 test kits were seeing volume of over 6,000 units, a drastic improvement on the 1,300 total units prior to Empower’s acquisition.
“Our investment in R&D is really starting to pay off for Kai Medical, starting with a new state-of-art laboratory information system to automate processes for the anticipated growth in volume. Next, we have hired three new scientists, increased https://e4njohordzs.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/tnw8sVO3j-2.pngistrative staff and are activating a call centre to provide world-class customer support. Further, the investment in new test protocols such as the Kai Saliva test kit, combined with our Health Canada medical device licence, positions us to be a leader in the reactivation of travel for Canadians,” said Steven McAuley, Empower Clinics CEO.
The medical laboratory is growing to at least double their present size in response to the expected growth in volume.
Current run rate projections now indicate as follows:
- January, 2021, is expected to exceed 8,000 tests, surpassing all of Q4 2020.
- February, 2021, could see daily rates hit 1,000 tests per day.
- March, 2021, could see daily rates hit 2,000 tests per day.
These run rates do not include the recent 25,000-unit order for Kai Saliva test kits, nor do they include any test kits from the launch of the Kai tests website.
Empower Clinics is up $0.015 to $0.35, which is perhaps the smallest incremental bounce they’ve had since their breakout in late November, when they went from a sleepy $0.08 to $0.30 almost overnight.
—Joseph Morton
