Access Bio said Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with Chemonics and Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM) to supply the company’s malaria rapid diagnostics test (RDT) kit.

Chemonics is the new bidding agency that works on behalf of the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), which is a non-profit organization that aims to reduce malaria-related mortality by 50 percent across 15 high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The contract comes after PMI had been delaying funding for about a year.

Under the agreement, Access Bio 엑세스바이오 will supply 1.2 billion won ($1.12 million) worth of malaria RDT kits. The company had previously signed a 1.34 billion won agreement with PFSCM to provide its malaria RDT kits to Uganda in September.

“The signing of the supply contract with Chemonics means that PMI has resumed its bidding process,” a company official said. “The agreement implies the possibility of continued growth of the company’s malaria RDT sales.”

The sales of malaria RDT are expected to improve not only in sales volume but also in profitability, he added.

The company also expects to complete a large-scale production plant in Korea by next January. The new plant aims to expand its global shares of malaria RDT kits while marketing new products such as dengue and influenza diagnosis products.

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