Celltrion, Humasis to ship $300 mn COVID-19 test kits to US

South Korea's biopharmaceutical company Celltrion Inc. and diagnostic kit manufacturer Humasis Co. have signed contracts to supply their jointly-developed rapid COVID-19 test kits worth 400 billion won ($333 million) to the US.

The two companies will ship their at-home testing kits, dubbed DiaTrust, to around 10 US institutions and companies such as Amazon.com and Defense Logistics Agency, a procurement agency under the US Department of Defense, by April of this year, Celltrion said on Thursday.

The shipments will be divided into kits for self-testing and diagnostic tests for professional use, both of which obtained emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration last year.

"Celltrion USA, in charge of marketing the test kits, has also entered into discussions with major US customers for second-quarter shipments," the company said in a statement.

"After the Biden administration announced plans to distribute a total of 1 billion test kits to the public (for free), we are receiving a series of inquiries about our test kits, which will likely post record-high sales in the first quarter of this year thanks to rising demand."   

PRODUCTION EXPANSION

SD Biosensor Inc. is another leading producer of rapid coronavirus test kits in South Korea. A company official said the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is speeding up the testing kit market's transition toward rapid antigen diagnostic kits away from molecular diagnostics.

SD Biosensor last month got a nod from the South Korean authorities to export its COVID-19 at-home test kits. They will be supplied to Roche, a Swiss healthcare company, under an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement.

Last month, the Korean company inked a 200.6 billion won contract to ship its COVID-19 test kits to the US under an OEM deal. It also agreed to export 138.7 billion won of the diagnostic kits to Canada under its own brand in the same month. 

"We're ramping up our production facilities to meet demand from at home and abroad," said the SD Biosensor official.

SugenTech Inc., another Korean diagnostic device maker, is trying to expand its foothold into North America beyond South America, with the coronavirus pandemic showing no signs of receding.

Last month, the company received Canadian certification for its Covid-19 test kits. It also recently completed clinical tests for its diagnostic kits in the US.  

"In case the Omicron variant continues to spread over a longer period of time, we've just started expanding our facilities," said a SugenTech official. "Demand is outpacing our increased output."

Boditech Med Inc. recently increased its daily production capacity of rapid test kits to 400,000 units, after it got the green light for exports in December 2021. It is working on obtaining US authorization for emergency use.

In December 2021, South Korea exported $448.2 million of immunodiagnostic test kits, including those used for the detection of COVID-19 antibodies and antigens, according to the Customs Office.

The monthly shipment was a 22% increase from the previous month and a 170% surge compared to that of August, when the country posted the poorest sales figure of COVID-19 test kits shipments for the year.

SHARE PRICES

Humasis on Thursday reported an almost eightfold jump on-year in 2021 operating profit to 192.8 billion won, led by a sharp increase in exports. The upbeat results sent its share price to a record high of 36,450 won at one point on the day, before closing up 21.4% at 34,500 won.

But the stock gave up most of the gains on Friday to end 26.23% lower at 25,450 won, against a 1.26% rise in the Kosdaq market.

Shares in SD Biosensor tumbled by 13.74% to finish at 67,800 won on Friday, a day after soaring by its daily limit of 30%.

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee at deep@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article