Boditech Med approved the sales of a diagnostic kit for the COVID-19 nAb from the Philippines FDA
We are delighted to share the news that Boditech Med has completed the local sales authorization for a neutralizing antibody diagnostic kit (ichroma™ COVID-19 Neutralizing Ab) from the Food and Drug Administration of the Philippines. It can detect the neutralizing antibody activity in the body against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 20 minutes with the ichromaTM diagnostic analyzer and both sensitivity and specificity are more than 99%, which is equivalent to the ELISA neutralizing antibody diagnostic product.
Neutralizing antibodies play a key role in preventing SARS-CoV-2 virus from penetrating into cells and preventing them from multiplying in the body. As the activity of neutralizing antibodies increases after being infected with the COVID-19 or after vaccination, the possibility of infection and transmission would be blocked,even if exposed to the virus.
Recently, the number of COVID-19 infection cases has dramatically increased around the world due to the influence of the Omicron variant, but it shows a declining trend. It is expected that the neutralizing antibody diagnostic kit would be a great alternative solution in the process to endemic. Basically, if the spread of COVID-19 is going to slows down, the demand for travel around the world will skyrocket. In this case, neutralizing antibody diagnostic kits can contribute to the flourishing of tourism, such as the traveler's clean pass. In addition, it can monitor the level of immuno-deficiency or immuno-suppression for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, so it can be used to manage whether to receive additional vaccines, especially to high-risk groups.
Besides, Boditech Med announced that it had signed a supply contract worth 6 million dollars with 'VITALINE HEALTHCARE', a local sales agency in the Philippines on 22nd of February. This contract is based on the ichromaTM COVID-19 Antigen diagnostics kit that can diagnose whether a person is infected with COVID-19 in 15 minutes, and the supply period is for the next 10 months.
A company official said, “The Philippines market has been growing at an average annual rate of over 80% for the last five years, and we accomplished growth in sales to double in in 2021 comparing to the previous year. Since more than 1,000 new instruments such as ichromaTM and AFIAS have been installed in the last two years, the COVID-19 Ag test kit has been selling well and the sales of about 40 diagnostic kits has been remarkably increasing. We believe that as the neutralizing antibody diagnostic kit is available in our ichromaTM platform, this will generate a significant synergy effect with existing products.”