For a fortunate few, the 2020 pandemic was not all doom and gloom. NextGen Molecular Supplies was one of those privileged companies. The company was registered in 2017 and started operating on 1 February 2020, a few months after the pandemic started. The company is uniquely positioned as one of only a few fully black-owned companies operating in a unique industry – lab testing – and that industry is uniquely relevant to COVID-19.
Director and founder Dr Gerald Kimbi says, “Lab testing was the natural path of the business. We did not have to venture out somewhere else. We had products that are used to diagnose COVID-19. Without COVID-19, we would turn over only R25- to R35-million in a good year.” Due to the coronavirus, the company’s turnover was R100-million in 2020.
NextGen Molecular Supplies has two directors and three employees. Director Dr Kimbi has been in molecular biology research for the last 20 years. He spent a year as an application specialist with Applied Biosystems and later 12 years as a sales manager with Anatech Instruments. His passion is for new molecular biology diagnostic and research products that enable ease of use and therefore easy adoption by researchers and laboratories.
NextGen Molecular Supplies provides molecular biology reagents to the research and diagnostic industry. Some of its clients include Pathcare, Lancet, Ampath, universities and ARC. NextGen Molecular Supplies was voted the best-performing company at the 2021 Nedbank and Riversands l Small-Business Excellence Awards.
In the past year, the biggest milestone for NextGen Molecular Supplies was moving into the new facility at Riversands I-Hub, where it anticipates growing with two full-time and two part-time employees. NextGen Molecular Supplies has also recently completed the construction of their demo laboratory which will be used for customer demonstration purposes. For the future Nextgen Molecular supplies, intends to become ISO certified, partner with additional suppliers and start a manufacturing facility.