Empower Clinics (CBDT.C) announced today that they have received a purchase order for 9,000 of their RT-PCR COVID-19 detection tests, which will be processed over the next four months by Kai Medical Laboratory. This total revenue jump is anticipated to be more than $1 million, according to a press release.

This comes on the heels of their October acquisition of KAI, wherein Empower announced that they would process 1,000 COVID-19 RT-PCR tests for a major film and TV production studio over a month, with the possibility of more work to come when the initial tests were complete.

“Just three days ago we were happy to inform our shareholders that KAI had achieved a record month in October with 1,375 units, as well as, signed numerous new commercial testing contracts, the details of which were to be provided in subsequent press releases. Today’s contract is not one of those contracts. We were informed of this contract at the close of business on Friday. As I said on Friday, the magnitude of KAI’s growth and success can not be overstated. Though we are very happy with today’s record order announcement, these 9,000 tests represent only a fraction of the lab’s capacity of 4,000 COVID-19 RT-PCR tests per day. It is our intention to build on this big success and continue ramping up growth significantly through 2020 and well into 2021,” said Steven McAuley, chairman and CEO of Empower Clinics.

KAI has processed tests for six different film and television productions in Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, Dallas and continues to build a name for themselves in the industry.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry have been considerable in terms of revenues and jobs being temporarily lost, and at risk of long-term damage if the industry can’t find a solution to get productions back up and running. In terms of raw numbers, the global film and television industry stands to lose 5160 billion in growth over the next five years according to research firm Ampere Analysis.

Total North American box office earnings in 2019 were USD$11.32 billion according to Statistica.com. In January of 2020, the U.S. motion picture and sound recording industry employed over 456,000 people, with more coming in from Canada, the United Kingdom and around the world.

Empower believes that Kai Medical Laboratory can deliver one element of the solution with their RT-PCR test, which is reliable, accurate and fast.

—Joseph Morton