GC MS to sell British kits testing immunity formation from Covid-19

GC Medical Science (GC MS) has signed a memorandum of understanding with U.K.-based diagnostic kit developer Oxford Immunotec, and a Korean in-vitro diagnostics company, Mesdia Inc, to sell the British firm’s kits measuring Covid-19 T-cells.

Under the agreement, GC MS and Mesdia will sell and import Oxford Immunotec’s products in Korea. The U.K. company’s Korean offshoot supports the overall marketing and technology for selling the kits.

Oxford Immununotec’s “T-SPOT Discovery SARS-CoV-2 kit” uses T-SPOT technology to measure T-Cell expression intensity of the coronavirus within the blood to diagnose immunity formation. 

The test kit is tailored to the immunogenic measurement of large-scale Covid-19 vaccine administrations, used in the U.K. for Covid-19 vaccine development and clinical trials, according to a GC MS official. 

Oxford Immuotec has been selected by the British government’s vaccine development taskforce as the only supplier of T-Cell diagnostic kits to evaluate the coronavirus immunogenicity, GC MS said in a news release on Monday. 

“We expected a surge in demand for these kits upon the beginning of Covid-19 vaccinations later this month and decided to supply them to Korea,” GC MS CEO Ahn- Eun-uk said. “We will endeavor to expand the Covid-19 diagnostic kit market through the newly imported product in addition to six existing Covid-19 kits and 'GENEDIA W COVID-19 Ag kit under domestic approval process.”