Karius, Inc.

Karius, Inc., a for-profit clinical diagnostics company headquartered in Redwood City, California, delivers next-generation sequencing (NGS) diagnostic testing services to federal healthcare agencies exclusively as a prime contractor, competing full-and-open with no set-aside designations across 18 recent awards valued at $3.1 million in combined potential value. The company operates two clinical laboratories — one at its Redwood City headquarters and one in Harlingen, Texas — and specializes in metagenomic sequencing of microbial cell-free DNA and RNA for infectious disease detection, rapid pathogen identification, and antimicrobial resistance monitoring from blood specimens. Karius tests are priced at $2,000 per specimen and have been adopted as a sole-source diagnostic capability across multiple federal healthcare networks.

Karius' customer base concentrates heavily within the Veterans Health Administration. The Veterans Integrated Service Network 8 (VISN 8) accounts for six awards and $968 thousand in combined potential value, anchored by a $600 thousand indefinite-delivery contract awarded August 22, 2022, with an ultimate completion date of July 31, 2027. VISN 17 holds three awards totaling $534 thousand potential value, grounded in a $490 thousand indefinite-delivery contract issued April 1, 2025, with completion through March 31, 2029. These two VA networks together represent 94% of all recent awards. Secondary customers include the Defense Health Agency (three awards, $654 thousand), the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (three awards, $199 thousand), and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (one $631 thousand R&D contract for metagenomic sequencing development). The Defense Health Agency and ASPR anchors most of the non-VA dollar value. Karius holds positions on two principal indefinite-delivery vehicles: the VISN 8 IDC with five task orders totaling $368 thousand, and the VISN 17 IDC with two task orders totaling $44 thousand.

Recent representative work includes a $120 thousand delivery order from VISN 8 issued August 1, 2026, for next-generation sequencing diagnostic testing (completing July 31, 2027), a $490 thousand sole-source IDC from VISN 17 effective through March 31, 2029 at $2,000 per test, a $631 thousand R&D definitive contract from ASPR issued July 1, 2024, for research into metagenomic sequencing of microbial cell-free DNA and RNA, a $164 thousand purchase order from the Defense Health Agency issued October 1, 2023, for NGS laboratory testing at Naval Medical Center San Diego, and a $80 thousand purchase order from the NIH Clinical Center issued September 15, 2023, for molecular diagnostic testing. Awards are classified under NAICS 621511 (Medical Laboratories) for 17 of 18 awards, with one R&D award in NAICS 541714 (Biotechnology R&D). Activity has remained modest and episodic — four awards in 2025, two in 2026 — with four awards worth $381 thousand facing ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and therefore subject to recompete. Karius obligated $2 million against its $3.1 million combined potential value (63% utilization), indicating selective uptake against its available capacity on VA and DoD sole-source diagnostic IDCs.