Hologic (NSDQ:HOLX) is spending $50 million — including $14 million during its most recent quarter — to boost its production of COVID-19 tests.
The U.S. government is providing $7.6 million to support the effort.
The investment, which CEO Stephen MacMillan outlined during a July 29 earnings call, includes installation of new high-speed filling lines and investment in new custom machinery to produce more penetrable caps.
Hologic has been producing around the clock at its facility in San Diego, where employees from areas such as finance are now working packaging lines while the company hires 150 new operations employees to boost the headcount by more than 50%. The company is also expanding capabilities at its Manchester, U.K. diagnostic plant, which started making COVID tests at the end of June
“Overall, these actions have provided the capacity to produce at least 1.5 million COVID tests per week, on average, and should enable COVID sales to i…