In order to join forces and make the most of Gipuzkoa's research infrastructure, Osakidetza, Biomagune, Tecnalia and Ceit have agreed on a collaboration mechanism in order to use the Biomedical Engineering Laboratories at Ceit's Miramón campus in the fight against COVID-19.

In response to requests from health authorities, kits for shipping test samples are being prepared to facilitate sample collection by doctors. The transport media contain a cocktail of antibiotics that are prepared in the laboratory and allow the samples to be shipped from the patient's location to the analysis laboratory. This task is being carried out together with other BRTA centers and in close collaboration with Osakidetza, the Basque Country's healthcare system.

It is expected that 2,000–3,000 units will be produced each day.

The shipping kits are prepared in biosafety cabinets to guarantee that the sample collection tubes are completely sterile and do not interfere with the sample taken from patients.  The cocktail of three antibiotics (gentamicin, vancomycin and amphotericin B) is prepared in these cabinets and then loaded in the collection tubes, which are carefully sealed and prepared for delivery.

According to Sergio Arana, Director of Ceit's Biodevices and MEMS research group, “[this task] is something that is very familiar to us, and we carry out similar processes in our day to day, so as soon as we saw the possibility of collaborating with Osakidetza on this task we did not hesitate to put the laboratory at the service of the health authorities ”.