Seegene, the Korean diagnostic kit maker, said its annual sales and operating profit fell drastically in 2022 due to the easing of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the company's public filing on Friday, the company recorded sales and operating profit of 853.3 billion won ($657.1 million) and 195.9 billion won ($150.8 million) last year, down 37.7 and 70.6 percent, respectively, compared to a year earlier.

Seegene's fourth quarter results were also abysmal, with the company recording sales and operating profit on a consolidated base being 122.6 billion won and 15.5 billion won, down 70.1 and 92.2 percent compared to the same period in 2021.

The plunges in sales and operating profit in the fourth quarter were due to shrinking sales from Covid-19 diagnostic reagents as many countries eased Covid-19 quarantine regulations.

Also, a total of 11.7 billion won was incurred in connection with Italy's payback law for the first time in September last year, affecting sales and operating profit in the fourth quarter.

The payback law requires companies that have supplied medical devices on the Italian market to pay back any sum exceeding the allocated budget for purchases of medical devices.

However, the company said sales of non-Covid products continue to grow.

Sales of non-Covid-19 diagnostic reagents for respiratory diseases (RV), digestive infections (GI), human papillomavirus (HPV), and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the fourth quarter were 52.2 billion, up 23 percent from the previous quarter and 40 percent from the same period last year.

Notably, non-Covid-19 products accounted for 53 percent and exceeded sales of Covid-19 products for the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19.

In the equipment sector, the company installed 5,429 amplification equipment and 2,828 extraction equipment in 2022, continuously expanding the infrastructure for molecular diagnosis.

Seegene plans to continue targeting the global molecular diagnostics market this year based on 60 types of syndromic molecular diagnostics products with multiple patented technologies and a fully automated molecular diagnostics system.

Syndromic testing refers to a test that examines disease-causing pathogens at once to find the cause.

"We will promptly respond to market changes based on a fully automated molecular diagnostic system that applies a syndromic molecular diagnosis platform," a company official said. "We plan to promote global standardization."