Implant Sciences [IMSC] will be shipping its benchtop explosive trace detector to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) according to the agency’s delivery schedule after another government organization rejected a protest by a losing bidder.
The decision by the Government Accountability Office in favor of TSA’s selection of Implant led the agency to lift a stop work order that had been put in place after Morpho Detection, Inc. protested the award last fall. Morpho Detection part of Safran Group.
GAO’s rationale for rejecting Morpho’s protest was not disclosed by our press time.
Implant last November won the potential $162 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to supply its QS-B220 benchtop ETD to the TSA for aviation security. The award is the largest in the company’s history and is its first production contract with TSA, boosting its status in the trace detection market.
In February on Implant’s second quarter earnings call, Bill McGann, the company’s president and CEO, said TSA is the “single most desirable customer in the entire ETD industry.”
“The GAO’s decision validates TSA’s original award of the Explosives Trace Detection contract to Implant Sciences,” says McGann this week, following the GAO’s decision. “This marks Implant Sciences as the first small business to successfully introduce new ETD technology into aviation security and achieve approval through the TSA Qualified Products List in over a decade. This award further establishes Implant Sciences as a leader in explosives trace detection.”
TSA is ordering 1,170 QS-B220s from Implant.
McGann said in February during the earnings call that Implant wants to put a “laser focus” on the TSA orders, which are crucial to convert its backlog into sales “and ultimately collect cash to drive this company forward.”
He also said the outlook for the ETD industry is strong.
At the time of the TSA award the company’s then CEO Glenn Bolduc said it was an “inflection point” for Implant that would expand opportunities for more sales to domestic and international customers (HSR, Nov. 18, 2014). During the earnings call McGann said that beyond the TSA order there hasn’t been a time in the past 20 years where there have been more awards and tenders “on the horizon,” adding that in the next six to nine months requests for proposals from airports in Europe will be forthcoming that “at a minimum, and in some ways, we believe [are] far greater than the 1,170 TSA units.”
Prior to Implant’s selection, Morpho and Smiths Detection had been the only company’s that TSA has purchased ETDs from for aviation security screening.