Creative Testing Solutions closing Austin lab; 91 layoffs

An Arizona-based blood sample testing company is closing its lab in Austin and laying off 91 employees.

Creative Testing Solutions, the largest nonprofit blood donor testing lab company in the U.S., notified the Texas Workforce Commission that it will permanently close its facility at 4401 Freidrich Lane and lay off all employees at the site by Dec. 12. The positions range from managers and supervisors to testing technologists and trainers.

The nonprofit began operating the lab in early 2022 through an expanded partnership with Grifols, a global healthcare company based in Spain. The deal also gave Creative Testing Solutions responsibility for operations at Grifols’ labs in San Marcos and Memphis, Tenn. At the time, the companies said the partnership would promote development of new laboratory technology and increase operational efficiencies.

According to a quarterly newsletter Creative Testing Solutions published in September, the shutdown will see blood shipments that had gone to the Austin lab redirected to its San Marcos facility beginning Oct. 27. In Texas, the nonprofit also operates a lab in Dallas. Others around the U.S. are in Charlotte, N.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Phoenix; St. Louis; and Tampa, Fla.

Creative Testing Solutions was founded in 2010 and is owned by the American Red Cross, OneBlood and Vitalant. Its labs have expanded infectious-disease screening and moved diagnostic tests into licensed use during outbreaks, including Zika and COVID-19.

In 2020, it said it would test more than 22 million blood donor samples, or 70% of the U.S. blood supply, at its eight U.S. labs.

It notified the state of the closure and layoff under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, which  generally requires companies with 100 or more employees to give 60 days’ advance written notice to affected workers, the state dislocated worker unit and local officials ahead of plant closings or mass layoffs.