The contractors are TAHA Life Science in Germany and GNP Diagnostic in Greece. In Germany, the number of confirmed patients has increased five times recently, and Greece is in an emergency with COVID-19, including the first death.
TAHA Life Science(annual sales of about $16.3million) is a pharmaceutical company based in Europe and the Middle East, and GNP(annual sales of about $8.2million) is a specialist in vitro diagnostic medical device in Europe. The contract size is known to be $5.4million ($2.7million each).
Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that the initial response is important because the COVID-19 has high propagation power in mild conditions. The currently used RT-PCR method is not an on-site diagnosis, so the collected sample should be transported to a specialized facility such as a laboratory. So, there is a concern of deterioration or mixing during transport of the specimen, and it is pointed out as a disadvantage that the result value may be different depending on the experimental skill of the professional personnel conducting the inspection.
Philosys Healthcare's Gmate COVID-19 takes an immunoassay method that needs only 20 minutes to conduct an on-site test. With the accuracy of 93%, it is not very different from the RT-PCR, attracting attention from overseas countries.
The company said, "This patent, which was jointly filed with Philosys Healthcare's affiliated company, Philosys, has greatly increased the sensitivity and accuracy of the immunoassay method. The Sandwich Immunoassay method, which applied this patent technology, is a way to shake the strainer and pick only the coronaviruses."
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