Celltrion said Thursday that it would supply DiaTrust COVID-19 antigen rapid test to Defense Logistics Agency, a combat support agency in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), through its subsidiary Celltrion USA.

Under the accord, Celltrion USA will start supplying the antigen rapid diagnostic kit to 25,000 designated procurement agencies in the U.S., including military facilities, nursing homes, regional testing centers, and major facilities, as early as next month, the company added.

"The contract period is until Sept. 16 next year, and the contract amount can increase up to 738.2 billion won ($622.5 million) depending on the circumstances, the largest by a selected supplier," Celltrion said. "The contract is significant as it is very rare for a Korean company to win the largest contract in a massive procurement project run by the U.S. DoD."

The Korean company stressed that the contract has great meaning as the company managed to win the contract even though the U.S. applies the "Buy American Act," a regulation that grants additional points to products made by U.S. companies or manufactured in America, in bidding processes.

"This supply contract also shows that the U.S. DoD has recognized Celltrion's quality, production, and supply capabilities," the company said. "Celltrion also obtained emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for DiaTrust on April 16."

To win the contract, the company actively appealed to the fact that it has sufficient production capacity for the contract volume based on the large-scale facility of Humasis, a joint developer and manufacturer of DiaTrust.

"We believe that we have managed to show Celltrion's technological prowess and supply capability by participating as a supplier in the U.S. DoD procurement project, which has strict standards," a company official said. "As the spread of the variant virus is getting serious globally, we plan to further solidify the credibility of our diagnostic kit products by focusing on the implementation of this supply contract."

DiaTrust has improved sensitivity and specificity by applying two antibodies that bind to the N and S protein of the Covid-19 virus. The kit has a sensitivity and specificity of 93.3 and 99 percent, respectively. In addition, it allows Covid-19 tests within 15 minutes and can check whether or not an infection is present immediately after testing without additional equipment, according to Celltrion.

DiaTrust has two products in its lineup -- POCT (Point-Of-Care Test) and OCT (over the counter) home self-diagnostic kit – and the company will supply the POCT type through this contract.