County Durham tech company secures $6m US defense contract to detect airborne pathogens

A North East technology company has announced that it has received a $6m contract from the US Department of Defense.

Kromek, based in County Durham, has secured the multi-million dollar contract following on from earlier work with the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA).

The contract will see the company develop biological threat detection systems that identify airborne pathogens from its base at the NETPark technology park in Sedgefield.

This comes after Kromek raised £13m from investors earlier this year, which it will use to drive its growth plans.

Arnab Basu, CEO of Kromek, commented: “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.”