Disruptive Innovations in Nasal Swab Design and Manufacture

It’s safe to say that few people gave much thought to nasal swab design and manufacture until COVID-19 came to town. As we lined up for tests, though, suddenly everyone had an opinion about the long-stemmed scrapers. There were questions about efficacy, and discomfort was a common complaint. Oh, and there were worries that a shortage of swabs might be on the horizon. A couple of recent innovations have helped to allay those concerns. Today, Technimark announced that it has partnered with Rhinostics and iMFLUX to produce, package, and distribute individually packaged nasal swabs to help detect and diagnose potential infections such as COVID-19. Production of the medical-grade polypropylene swabs began in April at Technimark’s headquarters in Asheboro, NC, where the swabs are injection molded and packaged in an ISO Class 8 cleanroom and sterilized prior to distribution.