Noble Bio Expands Production Capacity of COVID-19 Specimen Transport Kits to Proactively Meet Market Demand

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] With the emergence of new variants of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continuously occurring since the outbreak, the demand for diagnostics is rapidly increasing, and Noble Bio is strengthening its ability to respond to market demand.

Noble Bio, the largest shareholder of Digital Optics, announced on the 25th that it will double its production capacity of COVID-19 specimen transport kits from the current level.

Currently, despite Noble Bio's specimen transport kit production plant operating at full capacity, it is unable to meet the order volumes from global No. 1 in vitro diagnostics company Abbott as well as domestic and international diagnostic kit companies. The expansion of production facilities is scheduled to be completed by March, significantly increasing capacity from 100 million units per month to 200 million units per month. The company expects this will enable it to fulfill the backlog of orders from waiting customers.

Since 2008, Noble Bio has secured outstanding technological capabilities through continuous research and development in the transport kit field and possesses development capabilities for specimen collection methods and application technologies tailored to various virus characteristics. Based on this, the company has secured numerous domestic and international patents, and its swabs are the only products approved as Class II medical devices. Additionally, based on U.S. FDA approval and European CE IVD certification, Noble Bio supplies exclusively in Korea and exports to more than 60 countries excluding Italy.

A company representative stated, “Due to the nature of swabs entering the body, which is unique in in vitro diagnostics, the approval standards and entry barriers are high, but Noble Bio’s transport kits have secured the world’s largest production volume based on technological capabilities and full in-house production of all processes.” He added, “Currently, January orders amount to 140 million units per month, and orders are continuously increasing each month, so we plan to complete the expansion quickly and achieve maximum sales.”

He continued, “In addition to rapid diagnostic kits in the third quarter of this year, new diagnostic kits such as neutralizing antibody diagnostic kits that can verify antibody generation after COVID-19 vaccination are expected to be commercialized, and Noble Bio will continue research and development to apply new technologies based on its technological capabilities.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.