GenPrime lands biggest deal

A Spokane company has sold 40 kits that will be used by the U.S. Postal Service in determining whether suspicious powders are toxic or safe.

GenPrime Inc., based in downtown Spokane, said Monday the sale is the largest the company has ever made. The 40 Prime Alert kits were sold for $8,500 each in a total deal worth about $340,000.

The kits went to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the oldest federal law enforcement agency in the country. It’s responsible for investigating and coordinating a response to mail crimes, including transporting or delivering dangerous chemicals or toxins.

“The major impact of this is the validation of our product,” said Buck Somes, vice president of sales and marketing for GenPrime.

Within five minutes of testing, the Prime Alert kit can detect any of 13 dangerous bacterial substances, according to GenPrime press materials. Included in that group are anthrax, ricin and botulinum, said Somes. He said the postal service has dealt with more than 20,000 mail facility shutdowns since the first anthrax incidents in mailrooms occurred in October 2001.

Eventually GenPrime hopes to sell more Prime Alert kits direct to the major mail distribution centers nationwide, Somes said.

“The postal service has created a response protocol that should be the standard for dealing with that problem,” Somes said. As the Prime Alert kits are more widely deployed, “this will save a lot of time for the postal service,” he said.

The validation from the USPS order should help next month when GenPrime showcases the Prime Alert kit at a first-responders’ conference to be held in Indianapolis, Somes said.

If more orders come in, GenPrime should have no troubling handling production. Manufacturing the Prime Alert device that reads samples is done in-house, he added.

The company has 16 workers currently.

Prime Alert uses a patented fluorescent-detection technology to analyze the chemical reaction of substances considered potentially harmful.