County Durham technology company Kromek has been awarded a $6m contract from a branch of the US Department of Defense.
The order for the company to develop biological threat detection systems follows on from earlier work with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In total, the contract will be worth around $13m to Kromek.
The company, which is based on the NETPark technology park in Sedgefield, specialises in detection technology focusing on the medical, security screening and nuclear markets. It was last week named one of the country’s most innovative companies.
The new work for DARPA will see Kromek develop a system that senses, analyses and identifies airborne pathogens.
The 28-month contract, which starts immediately, moved into a second phase after Kromek successfully met milestones in phase one of the programme.
Kromek CEO Dr Arnab Basu said: “In addition to the ever-present danger of bio-terrorism, the outbreak of the pandemic has exposed the world to the severity of biological threats and their potential impact on public health and the global economy, and has demonstrated the need to rapidly evolve bio-security systems and associated technologies.
“This contract will allow us to continue our work in developing a mobile wide-area bio-surveillance system capable of detecting airborne pathogens in real-time. We look forward to reporting on our progress as we deliver on our milestones.”
The first phase of the project saw Kromek develop of a vehicle-mounted biological-threat identifier as well as a miniaturised mobile wide-area bio-surveillance system.
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The second phase aims to deliver an automated wide spectrum airborne pathogen detection system that is fully mobile and runs autonomously. In addition, systems will be designed to be networked where data is stored, shared and further analysed and provide real-time information to decision makers.
Kromek - a spin-out from Durham University - is set to release full-year results in July. In a trading update issued last month, it said that it had seen “significant sequential revenue growth” in the second half of the year and expects to report revenue and EBITDA in line with market expectations.
Earlier this year Kromek raised £13m from investors to drive forward plans for growth, which include ramping up its commercialisation rate, expanding its sales and marketing for the group’s nuclear detection and medical imaging activities. The money raised also helped strengthen the company’s balance sheet.