Massachusetts Ends $400,000 Monthly Contract with Biobot Analytics

Massachusetts will end its contract with Biobot Analytics on July 31, shifting to an in-house waste water testing program that state officials say will cost roughly one-quarter of the current $400,000 monthly expense. Its analysis of sewage samples detected coronavirus genetic material days before hospital and testing data showed rising infections.

Brown, the state epidemiologist, said Massachusetts researched testing methods at the State Public Health Laboratory and plans to launch the new program in the fall. The state will monitor 12 large municipal treatment facilities instead of the 60 sites used during the pandemic.

Brown said the reduced number of sites will still give a representative picture of disease trends while lowering costs. The program will focus on COVID-19, influenza, RSV, and mpox.

Matus, Biobot’s chief executive, said the loss of the state contract is a significant setback for the company. She added that relying solely on in-house testing could slow adoption of newer technology. Matus said Biobot will continue to work with other government customers and will expand its own surveillance programs beyond the scope of most state-run efforts.

The CDC ended its contract with Biobot in 2023 and awarded the work to Verily, a Google-affiliated company. Several other states, including Maine, Rhode Island, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Missouri, have also moved waste water testing in-house. Biobot was founded in 2017 by Matus and Newsha Ghaeli while both were graduate students at MIT.

The company has raised more than $40 million and continues to operate a public dashboard tracking more than 1,500 viruses from waste water samples.