Korea’s leading pharmaceutical companies are quickly entering the Covid-19 diagnostic kit distribution business.
Their move came as the fourth wave of the virus outbreak recently hit the nation despite the increasing rollouts of vaccines.
The need for screening asymptomatic Covid-19 cases has also risen.
Local drugmakers said they would utilize their existing distribution channels to provide diagnostic kits for pharmacies.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical announced on Wednesday that it signed an agreement with CALTH, an in vitro medical device startup, to supply a rapid antigen test kit in the domestic market.
In November, Daewoong had clinched a deal with Seasun Biomaterials to supply the latter’s six Covid-19 PCR test kits in the global market.
This time, the company has entered the local diagnostic kit distribution market.
Under the latest agreement, Daewoong plans to supply CALTH’s AllCheck COVID-19 Ag to pharmacies across the nation. AllCheck COVID-19 Ag is undergoing regulatory review by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Daewoong expects that it will be able to sell the test kit from the third quarter.
According to Daewoong, AllCheck COVID-19 Ag can detect the virus within 15 minutes after a nasopharyngeal sample collection. The test kit showed 92.11 percent sensitivity and 99.52 percent specificity in clinical trials, the company said.
Daewoong emphasized that AllCheck COVID-19 Ag can effectively detect the Delta variant, first identified in India and now detected worldwide. This is because it targets not only the easily mutated spike protein but also the nucleocapsid protein, which is the core nucleus of the virus.
In May, Hanmi Pharmaceutical launched SD Biosensor’s Covid-19 self-test kit as its brand product and distributed it to pharmacies around the nation.
Hanmi’s product, HANMI COVID-19 Home Test, is the same one that SD Biosensor had won conditional approval from the drug regulator. Users can directly drop a sample collected from the nasal cavity into the kit to check for Covid-19 infection.
“Releasing Hanmi’s brand product will enhance the company’s competitiveness in drug distribution among pharmacies,” a Hanmi official said. “Our smooth distribution of self-test kits will help the nation’s quarantine efforts.”
Hanmi allowed Online Pharm, a subsidiary of Hanmi Science, to supply the product. The self-test kit is available on Online Pharm’s online shopping site, Hanmi Pro-Calm.
Dong-A ST is also near supplying a local home-test diagnostic kit in the domestic market.
On May 24, Dong-A ST agreed with PCL to sell PCL’s home test kit in foreign countries. Under the non-exclusive sales contract, Dong-A ST’s overseas business division will register and sell the product in countries except for those where PCL has already registered the product.
Dong-A ST is introducing PCL’s product to its existing foreign clients and new diagnostic-medical device companies. In some countries, the company has applied for product registration. Dong-A ST has supplied the product in small amounts for countries with the need for emergency use, the company said.
However, the two companies have yet to sign an agreement for the local distribution because PCL’s self-test kit has not obtained approval in Korea.