Frontliners of Malta’s National Health Service, visitors to its various outlets and a number of local non-governmental organisations have benefited from a donation of thousands of bottles of hand sanitiser gel by The BioArte Limited, which only last year sequenced the Maltese strain of COVID-19 (SARS CoV-2) and continues to do so.
The hand sanitiser gel, in 100 ml and 500 ml bottles, was delivered last week to the Central Procurement and Supplies Unit of the Health Ministry, apart from the Dar tal-Providenza, the Malta Hospice Movement and the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).
Mr Christian Duchow and Dr Manuele Biazzo, Directors of The BioArte, decided to make the donation to underline their start-up’s commitment to contribute to the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic and follows the start-up’s decision to dedicate resources to the better understanding of the Maltese COVID-19 viral isolates.
“We decided to make these donations for the greater benefit of Maltese society and to underline our commitment to support key stakeholders who are, in their own way, contributing to a better society,” Dr Biazzo said.
There was gratitude from all those who received these generous donations. Ing. Karl Farrugia, Managing Director of the CPSU, said the hand sanitiser is part of the first line of defence that all those in the National Health Service constantly used in the course of their work and for visitors to their various outlets.
Nadine Camilleri Cassano, Administrator of the Dar tal-Providenza, said hand sanitiser was always in demand and thanked The BioArte for their altruistic donation. Anna Frendo, Care Services Manager at the Malta Hospice Movement, welcomed the donation and expressed her gratitude, on behalf of all the service users, for such a useful donation.
Regina Catrambone, co-founder and Director of MOAS, said the donation is highly appreciated and will be distributed among the migrant communities on the island.
The BioArte’s laboratories, based at the Life Sciences Park in San Gwann, were only inaugurated in November and the company, which employs a team of medical laboratory scientists and virologists – many with Ph.D.s, is committed to continue not only to detect SARS CoV-2 viral isolates, but also to perform research in the same field in order to obtain new information that may help the scientific community in the development of new remedies.
Its research of the sequencing of the first virus lineages, for which the funding was totally internal, were published last year by the American Society of Microbiology and the information is freely available on their website.
Among The BioArte’s services, beside the COVID screening services (antigenic and molecular), is the research-based clinical examination of persons, who are referred to the company by their doctors, to obtain a comprehensive outline of all the micro-organisms in their body, correlated with the latest data in research literature worldwide and the implication on their health.
