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Alphabet’s life sciences company Verily has scored its first Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contract, a high profile job leaders hope will boost its brand in public health as well as its nascent wastewater surveillance business, executives told STAT.

Under the up-to-five year, $38 million contract, Verily will collect samples from hundreds of wastewater treatment centers across the country, analyze them for Covid-19 and the mpox virus at its South San Francisco lab, and return the data to CDC within 36 hours of collecting the samples. The contract is limited to those two pathogens but the company is prepared to analyze more if needed, leaders said.

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The contract comes as Verily struggles to turn a profit among various disparate health care offerings, like value-based care analytics for health systems, clinical trial software and even an in-person substance use rehabilitation center in Ohio. Despite several prominent hires and a vast number of projects, the company has yet to forge a sustainable business.

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