• About
  • Article PDF
  • White Papers
  • Listening Tours​
  • Contact
  • Support Us
  • Advertising & Sponsorships
Thursday, January 26, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
Times Of Entrepreneurship
Growth and Equity for a Changing World
Times Of Entrepreneurship
No Result
View All Result

A Missouri Biotech Can Test For Coronavirus In The Air. Why Isn’t The Technology Being Deployed In The US?

Meanwhile, Public Health Agencies In China, Korea And The EU Have Been Buying The Devices

by Elizabeth MacBride
March 3, 2020
in Deep Tech, New Builders, Rest of US, US Heartland
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0
1.9k
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Coronavirus (COVID-19)

A small Drexel, Missouri-based company is selling devices to detect coronavirus in the air to public health agencies in China, Korea and the European Union. But CEO Dave Alburty says the U.S. government, which helped fund and owns some of the equipment, doesn’t seem to remember that it exists.

“We’re a little company, and what’s bothered me all these years is that I could see the potential for our tools,” said Alburty. “But I could see preparedness for this slipping and slipping.”

InnovaPrep is gearing up to increase its production capacity by 10 times as the virus spreads. Alburty hopes to sell kits for a little less than $50,000 to clients such as public health agencies, as well as places of concern, such as hospitals and airports. In an indoor space, the testing kits take samples from the air, concentrate them, filter them and send them through a genetic testing device. Results are returned in an hour.

“The device works well at being able to collect the virus,” said Peter Raynor, public health professor at the University of Minnesota, who did independent testing on the main component of the kit. “In our analysis, we were able to detect the RNA in the virus, and with some success, be able to detect whether it was still infectious. The differences (between coronavirus and other viruses) are small enough that we’d expect to be able to detect the RNA of coronavirus.”

In 2001, Alburty was on the research team that developed the airborne anthrax testing system still used by the U.S. Postal Service.

Dave Alburty
Dave Alburty, CEO of InnovaPrep

‘I’ve Been Met With … Silence’

As he watched the coronavirus spread and saw the increase in orders from overseas, he reached out to the US government to remind them of the potential of the technology, which returns an analysis in an hour. “I’ve been met with … silence.”

InnovaPrep, which has 25 employees and about $3 million in annual revenue, has sold hundreds of instruments to test for the airborne coronavirus in February through its overseas distributors to the Chinese and Korean public health agencies and to clients in the European Union, Alburty said. Now, it has a six-week backlog of orders.

Alburty is now packaging the instruments into kits. They consist of concentrating pipette and a lightweight, portable dry filter air sampler.

The Department of Defense already owns some of the technology, he added.

“I’ve contacted the Department of Defense twice, to say, ‘Are you going to deploy those? You should deploy all those,” he said. “I wrote to HHS. We have customers at CDC, and I haven’t heard back from them yet.”

The Centers for Disease Control did not respond to a request for comment. The Department of Defense and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump Administration Faulted

As the virus spreads, the Trump Administration has been coming under increasing criticism for its lack of preparedness.

“In 2018, the Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure,” wrote journalist Laurie Garrett in Foreign Policy. “In numerous phone calls and emails with key agencies across the U.S. government, the only consistent response I encountered was distressed confusion. If the United States still has a clear chain of command for pandemic response, the White House urgently needs to clarify what it is.”

InnovaPrep, which was founded in 2009, is now putting together a financing package of about $6 million to expand as the coronavirus spreads. Alburty was a fellow at Pipeline Entrepreneurs in 2013. Pipeline is a Midwestern organization that helps connect entrepreneurs with resources that help them scale. Pipeline connected Alburty, whose co-founder is Andy Page, with Joe Hadzima, a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, who sent me a map of the patents held by the company: http://see-the-forest.com/DocumentRecall.act?docId=frv9gb.k7cdwhpq8&orgId=fts

InnovaPrep was also the recipient of SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) funding from the U.S. government.

A long history

Alburty has a long pedigree in engineering and technology. His father worked in the space program in the 1950s and 60s, on the Apollo and Gemini programs, Alburty said. “He was always an influence on me my whole life.”

Alburty worked at Kansas City-based MRI Global from 1990-2005, where he worked on the monitoring system for anthrax after the attacks that killed five people in 2001. “I had been doing similar projects at MRI for other government and industrial clients,” he said. “The junction between technology and engineering sometimes produces innovation.”

But, he’d also always been entrepreneurial, starting when he was a kid, selling golf balls back to the golfers on the course behind his dad’s house. When MRI Global offered early retirement, he took half his pension in cash and with $20,000 established a lab.

When I reached Alburty earlier this afternoon, the two were working over plans at Page’s house.

What’s frustrates him now, Alburty said, is that the virus will spread, killing more people, when the tools to help have existed all along. “We’ve got the tools to help and people don’t know it,” he said.

But if he ramps up production now, he said, InnovaPrep will be able to prevent some people from getting infected with coronavirus within six weeks. And, they’ll be ready for the next one.

Subscribe to Times of E weekly news briefs: www.timesofe.com/subscription



This story and others on Times of E are made possible by a sponsorship from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private, nonpartisan foundation that provides access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity – regardless of race, gender, or geography. The Kansas City, Mo.-based foundation uses its grantmaking, research, programs, and initiatives to support the start and growth of new businesses, a more prepared workforce, and stronger communities. For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect with www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn.

Tags: CoronavirusCOVID-19Dave Alburtyimpact entrepreneursImpact InvestingInnovaPrepPipeline Entrepreneurs
Elizabeth MacBride

Elizabeth MacBride

Related Posts

Modern Mexican Food Brands Give Old El Paso The Boot

Modern Mexican Food Brands Give Old El Paso The Boot

by Nina Roberts
January 25, 2023
0

Regina Trillo is the founder of Nemi Cactus Sticks, made with Mexican nopal. Photos: Nelipot Project, collage: Nina Roberts. Authentic...

TK

With A New Way to Make Furniture, Locally, Baru Has Nearly $1M In Revenue After Two Years

by Nina Roberts
December 23, 2022
0

Tino Go is the founder of Baru. Could “decentralized manufacturing” be the next industrial revolution? Tino Go, the founder of...

Vermont Farmer Creates A New Drink Category With Roots In The Past

Vermont Farmer Creates A New Drink Category With Roots In The Past

by Nina Roberts
November 23, 2022
0

Matt Sayre is the founder of Shrubbly, a sparkling shrub drink made with aronia berries. Photo collage: Nina Roberts The...

The Passion of The Christian Hip Hop Entrepreneur James Rosseau

The Passion of The Christian Hip Hop Entrepreneur: James Rosseau

by Lori Ioannou
November 10, 2022
0

James Rosseau of Holy Culture Radio, bringing Christian hop hop to the forefront. Since its beginnings in the 1980s, Christian...

a red triangle with the words System Hacked on it

Cybersecurity Best Practices for Small Businesses

by Elizabeth Macbride
October 20, 2022
0

There's a new and booming market for cyber protection and cyber insurance services for small businesses.  The market started to...

More Americans Are Embracing Entrepreneurship

More Americans Are Embracing Entrepreneurship

by Elizabeth Macbride
October 6, 2022
0

Evidence continues to build that Americans are re-embracing the idea of entrepreneurship as a career, path to wealth and a...

Subscribe to Times of E’s Free Weekly Newsletter

Learn about the emerging ecosystem of diverse founders

Popular

  • Trailblazer: An Audacious Denver Entrepreneur Recruited An Xbox Creator To Develop Her Gaming Vision

    Trailblazer: An Audacious Denver Entrepreneur Recruited An Xbox Creator To Develop Her Gaming Vision

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Modern Mexican Food Brands Give Old El Paso The Boot

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Top 20 U.S. University Entrepreneurship Competitions

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Venture Capital Returns Are More Skewed Than People Realize

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • With A New Way to Make Furniture, Locally, Baru Has Nearly $1M In Revenue After Two Years

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Recent

Venture Spotlight: Realist Ventures In Connecticut Focuses on Biotech, Healthcare

January 26, 2023
Modern Mexican Food Brands Give Old El Paso The Boot

Modern Mexican Food Brands Give Old El Paso The Boot

January 25, 2023
Editor’s Note: We Are All Jacinda Now

Editor’s Note: Burnout World; Dark Web’s Criminal Minds; Small Biz Gets Stuck w George Santos

January 23, 2023

Recommended

  • Health
  • Climate
  • Deep Tech
  • Finance
  • Education
  • Women Entrepreneurs
  • Mentorship
a photo of a glass patterned dome in Dubai

THE HUB: World Expo Back On In Dubai, Cannibis Scholarships, And $10 Million For Entrepreneurship at Tufts

2 years ago
woman standing next to a brick wall

Eco-Depression is on the Rise. Here’s How University Students are Coping

1 year ago
  • About
  • Partner
  • Bespoke Research
  • Listening Tours​
  • Contact
  • Support Us
  • Privacy Policy

(703-966-7357)

© 2020 Mondial Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 
Facebook Twitter Linkedin
No Result
View All Result
  • Research
  • Finance
  • Women Entrepreneurs
  • New Builders
  • Ecosystem
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • Editor’s Note

© 2022 Mondial Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Support Times of E

Times of E covers the emerging ecosystem of diverse founders.

With your support of our journalism, you will receive our weekly newsletter and one of these resources for free: 

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?