The availability of test swabs is becoming a serious impediment to testing for the deadly coronavirus.

A nimble startup in San Francisco, which made 3D printers for a living, has turned on a dime and is making COVID-19 test swabs instead. Of course, the company has 3D-printed these. Origin, the startup in question, has already completed successful clinical trials on April 12. (CrunchBase)

With New York about to run out of test swab kits, Origin’s production will not come a day too soon. Interestingly, the startup made the pivot from 3D printers to COVID-19 test kits in a matter of just two weeks.

Origin: All hands on deck

According to Chris Prucha, co-founder and CEO, the company is using all its resources on the test kits. These include previously built 3D printers, such as Origin One.

“Complex, detailed geometries can easily be produced on Origin One and do not require any molds,” the company said in a statement. “The test swabs can be produced when needed, anywhere, with only a single material for the supply chain.”

The company says its Origin One printer produces up to 1,500 swabs in a single print run in less than eight hours.

Traditional production limitations

Only a couple of factories are able to produce test swabs due to design, quality and manufacturing complexities.

Origin is collaborating with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), an academic medical center affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

The US Army, Origin material partners, universities including UCLA, and independent medical labs also tested the company’s swabs.

BIDMC conducted the clinical trials of the test kits.

“While successful clinical trials are not required to sell this kind of device, it’s a very strong proof point,” Prucha told Crunchbase. “We’ve now produced thousands of these devices and are ramping up to produce millions of them in coming weeks as we get more printers online.”

Origin already has a demand for more than half a million swabs immediately.

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