Ángela Pérez, founder and CEO of IMEGEN, emphasizes that the presence of three laboratories of the Valencian Community in the lot 10 of INGESA, the one of molecular tests COVID19, "demonstrates the potential of the sector of the Valencian biotechnology".
The Ministry of Health, through the National Institute of Health Management (INGESA), has awarded six of the eleven lots included in the Framework Agreement for the acquisition of the necessary material to face the COVID-19. One of them, number 10, has been the supply of kits for carrying out PCR, the reference test in the diagnosis of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease. And among the selected companies is the Institute of Genomic Medicine (IMEGEN), located in the University of Valencia Science Park.
In this regard, Angela Perez, founder and CEO of Imegen, stresses that the fact that there are three laboratories of the Community among the 31 firms selected in this lot -54 have submitted an offer- demonstrates the "potential" of the biotechnology sector in this autonomy. These PCR kits do not include the laboratory service, the diagnosis or the material for taking samples.
Experts designated by the autonomous communities, by the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), by the Carlos III Health Institute and by the National Centre of Protection Means (CNMP), dependent on the National Institute of Health and Safety at Work, as well as INGESA's technical team, have participated in this evaluation process.
"This measure is part of the set of actions that the Ministry of Health is developing to tackle the pandemic and aims to speed up access to supplies through the largest centralized purchase that the Spanish Administration has ever undertaken", the Ministry assures us.
This process will prevent the autonomous communities -with the exception of the Valencian Community, which has launched its own framework agreement to give local companies a greater choice-, the health areas of Ceuta and Melilla, INGESA and the Ministries of Defense and Interior from having to initiate bidding processes every time they need a supply.
So far, the purchase of non-sterile and disposable surgical gowns (lot 1), disposable and biological agent protection gowns type PB, level 2 (lot 2), non-sterile, disposable and high performance surgical gowns (lot 3), disposable and biological agent protection gowns type PB, level 4 (lot 4), molecular test COVID-19 (lot 10) and extraction kits (lot 11) has been awarded. The missing batches include nitrile gloves, protective goggles, type II and IIR surgical masks, protective masks FPP2 and FPP3.