Commission recommends $2.1M in incentives for COVID-focused firm

LARIMER COUNTY — A state commission unanimously approved offering $2.1 million worth of incentives to a Florida diagnostics company that said it might bring 298 jobs to Larimer County.

Economic development commissioners voted 9-0 with one member absent. The state EDC is part of the state Office of Economic Development & International Trade.

EDC agenda documents said the technical, professional and manufacturing jobs carry an annual average wage of about $68,100, about 25% higher than the county’s annual average wage. Funds would come as tax credits and be based on company performance over eight years, the information said.

Discussion during the Zoom meeting noted that funding would also depend on the company raising $9 million of the $12.5 million it’s seeking in a current funding round. The company has one employee and more than 50 contractors, commission information said.

The company is also considering growing in Utah instead of Colorado.

Blink

Documents don’t name the company, but Eric Doherty spoke at the meeting and said he is the company’s president. A BizWest search connected Doherty with Jacksonville, Florida-based Blink Science Inc. Doherty was named to the post in January, a company press release said.

Company materials said it’s developing “high-tech, low-cost diagnostic tools … to revolutionize point-of-care testing to ensure safe, fast precise diagnosis and treatment for acute and chronic conditions.”

Some of its products are intended for use against COVID.

An August press release said a product uses a mobile app and “HIPAA-compliant cloud” technology to help “companies aggregate and standardize third-party COVID test and vaccination data for employees, ensuring a safe operating environment while maintaining privacy.”

In March the company joined a group aimed at devising “interoperable digital health pass systems as a means to safely restore international travel, resume public life and restart the global economy.”

Doherty said the company’s plans include building a molecular diagnostics facility to include laboratory and small animal testing, as well as manufacturing: “small electronics and chip manufacturing: partially made chips [and] clean rooms to finalize the chips in the facility.”

He noted potential interactions with high school and college students, Colorado State University disease researchers and some early testing work the company is doing for the Department of Defense.

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