The 2010s was a decade in which face-to-face services became digitized, people turned to remote working, and the smartphone became a tool for everything from banking to calorie tracking.
Even within healthcare, we’ve seen a huge shift towards the digital – a trend made possible by the greater availability of fast, reliable broadband, and precipitated by the unique challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
Today, healthcare providers are able to capitalize on this trend with at-home medical tests that can be ordered online, delivered directly to the consumer, and processed in a lab space, all without the need for face-to-face interaction.
The coronavirus pandemic has introduced a new market for healthcare & pharmaceutical companies incorporating masks, hand sanitizers, and – most significantly – at-home tests. Current forecasts predict that the COVID-19 sample collection kits market alone will reach $16.56 billion by 2028.
We’ll also continue to see growth within the blood testing market, which was valued at $73.9 billion in 2020 and is set to expand at a fast rate within the next seven years. Overall, the infectious disease diagnostic market looks set to balloon to a worth of over $40 billion by 2027.
But it’s not just healthcare services that can profit – companies that specialize in genealogy products are also enjoying healthy expansion, and have already been valued at over $12 billion.
If you’re a company that specializes in at home test kits, you may have encountered delays in the supply chain – recently, the CDC warned of shortages of rapid COVID-19 tests. The reason for this is simple: demand for reliable at-home test kits for COVID-19 has exploded, leaving manufacturers with a backlog of orders they simply don’t have the time or resources to fill.
The good news is, other manufacturers are stepping in to fill the gap. Here at GPA Global, we have begun designing and manufacturing our own range of collection devices for medical test kits, which have been carefully developed and rigorously tested to ensure suitability across every relevant sector and application.
If you’re a company working with home test kits – whether for COVID-19, STDs or genealogy mapping – you could benefit from our comprehensive service.
Our team brings decades of combined expertise within the packaging sector to the new challenge of manufacturing legally compliant, industry-certified collection devices. We understand the complexities of producing kit and devices within the healthcare & pharmaceuticals sector, and can guarantee compliance with all regulations.
Beyond manufacturing, our standard offering also incorporates the design and production of packaging materials and documentation, as well as global logistics. With sophisticated production sites around the globe, we’re able to offer regional supply chain solutions, reducing costs – both financial and environmental – for brands situated in Asia and North America.
Our approach to the engineering of our collection devices is methodical and comprehensive. We begin by addressing regulatory aspects, to ensure that the product is fully compliant with local legislation.
The next step is design. What are the needs of this particular client? How should the device perform and how do we make it easy and safe for the end user? With a product brief finalized, we use rigorous testing and risk management techniques to ensure that the collection kit checks the boxes for functionality, usability and reliability and that any potential problems are safely mitigated.
We use advanced injection molding techniques to manufacture our medical-grade collection kits and devices. Within healthcare & pharmaceuticals, injection molding is a highly effective approach, as it offers the following:
Once manufactured, our devices are sterilized to ensure safety and efficacy.
An essential component of collection devices for at-home blood or saliva tests is stabilization fluid. We manufacture the stabilization fluid, and carry out the process of injecting it into the collection device, which is then securely sealed.
When it comes to at-home medical test kits, the packaging and documentation are just as important as the device itself. This is because home test kits rely on two things:
We print instruction booklets and other accompanying material to aid the end user in collecting their sample correctly and safely. We also print additional inserts that allow the user to package up and post their sample without risking contamination, leakage or breakage.
Some of the packaging and documentation materials we can supply include:
Serialization is the process of assigning a unique number to a product which corresponds to information about its origin, batch number and expiration date.
Within healthcare & pharmaceuticals, serialization is the best way to guard against counterfeiting. It’s also an essential practice when manufacturing at-home medical test kits, as it allows each individual test to be traced.
This is an aspect of our collection of devices that we take very seriously, always ensuring it is part of our turnkey offering.
All our medical collection devices meet the International Standard for Quality Management Systems for Medical Devices, as set out in ISO 13485:2016. We also ensure that all our devices are approved and authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when they are being manufactured and distributed within the United States.
The final part of the process is kitting and fulfilment globally. Our team will assemble the varied components of your testing kit and distribute it wherever it needs to be.
Client 1
We produced a saliva collection kit to enable DNA testing for a leading genealogy websites. In addition to the saliva collection device and stabilization fluid, we also manufactured the following:
Client 2
We produced a saliva collection kit to test for COVID-19 for a patient-centric genomics company that is based in California. The SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test kits we manufactured are authorized by the FDA and allow for simple, painless and non-invasive sample collection, reducing the risk of mistakes by the end user.
Client 3
This client is a biotechnology company based in Georgia that specializes in developing innovative new methods for blood and plasma collection and testing. We manufactured a blood plasma collection kit, complete with a finger-prick device and secure pouch for sending the sample back to the lab.
If you’re a company working with any kind of at-home medical device, get in touch with the GPA Global team to find out about our healthcare packaging.
