First Cross-Property Partnership between Minor League Baseball and Major League Baseball Enables Minor League Players, Staff to use Spectrum Saliva Collection Kits for Testing

Major League Baseball has expanded its partnership with Spectrum Solutions, LLC to facilitate a first-in-class COVID-19 testing program throughout the 2021 Minor League season. Under the first cross-property partnership between Minor League Baseball and Major League Baseball, Spectrum is supplying all 120 Minor League teams with its innovative SDNA-1000 saliva collection kits for all player and staff testing. In addition, Spectrum Solutions has named three-time National League Cy Young Award and 2012 Roberto Clemente Award recipient Clayton Kershaw as a brand ambassador. Broadening its impact at key levels throughout baseball, Spectrum Solutions has also consulted with Little League International to provide guidance as Little League continues to evaluate its 2021 tournament season.

Minor League health and safety protocols include laboratory PCR testing of players and staff members multiple times per week.  The non-invasive SDNA-1000 saliva collection device will be a critical component of MiLB’s COVID-19 health monitoring and testing plan, just as it has been since the start of MLB’s 2020 season.  The collection kits are serving as one of the key interlocking safeguards to help maintain the health and safety of MiLB personnel around the country. During the 2020 Major League season, over 200,000 of Spectrum’s SDNA-1000 saliva collection kits were used by MLB players and personnel to help successfully monitor their health and complete a successful season.  This season, over 125,000 tests have already been administered in the Majors.

Jon Coyles, MLB Vice President, Drug, Health and Safety Programs, said: “Major League Baseball is grateful to Spectrum Solutions for their continued partnership in helping us monitor the well-being of the players and staff throughout all levels of our game.  The personnel of Minor League teams will receive the same unwavering commitment to safety that Spectrum’s products have created in the Majors, and we look forward to a responsible resumption of the Minor League season in 2021.”

“It’s a privilege to be baseball’s first dual-property partner as well as bring the Minor Leagues back to the game nationwide. We engineered our revolutionary saliva-based PCR testing kits for early detection accuracy and safety. No trade-offs,” said Bill Phillips, Chief Operations Officer for Spectrum Solutions. “After all, if an individual is showing symptoms, they may have already exposed others to that possible infection. Our highly sensitive formulation detects infections from saliva samples measuring as low as 200 copies/ml compared to lateral flow rapid antigen tests that need a minimum of 10,000-20,000 copies/ml.”

The Spectrum Solutions SDNA-1000 Saliva Collection Device was the first saliva-based solution to receive the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for COVID-19 testing. It supplants the need for the painful nasal swab process with a more accurate and pain-free saliva collection process. This easy-to-use option was engineered to eliminate user collection errors and provides a path for at-home sample self-collection that mitigates downstream exposure risks by delivering in-device viral inactivation. Offering the safest & most robust biomaterial for detecting COVID-19, the Spectrum SDNA saliva collection system provides over 10 days of post-collection stability with no degradation in sample efficacy.

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Contact:  Michael Teevan, Major League Baseball, PublicRelations@MLB.com, @MLB_PR, MLBPressBox.com; Jeff Lantz, Minor League Baseball, JLantz@MiLB.com; Tim Rush, Springboard5 for Spectrum Solutions, tim.rush@springboard5.com.