[Featured Stock] Digital Optic Doubles Production of 'Sold-Out' COVID-19 Specimen Transport Kits... Will They Benefit from Their Senior?

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Digital Optic is showing strong performance. This appears to be influenced by the announcement from its largest shareholder, Noble Bio, that it will double the production capacity of its COVID-19 specimen transport kits from the current level.

As of 9:41 AM on the 26th, Digital Optic is trading at 1,290 KRW, up 15.7% from the previous day.

Noble Bio is operating its specimen transport kit production plant at full capacity but is unable to meet the order volume. It supplies to domestic and international diagnostic kit companies, including Abbott, the world's number one in vitro diagnostics company. The expansion is planned to be completed by March, increasing production from 100 million to 200 million units per month.

The transport kits, composed of virus specimen collection swabs and transport media (CTM), are the first step in COVID-19 diagnosis and essential for testing various viruses and bacteria. Demand is expected to continue growing. The transport kit market is projected to rapidly grow to about $2.2 billion (approximately 2.5645 trillion KRW) by 2023.

Since 2008, Noble Bio has secured outstanding technological capabilities through continuous research and development in the transport kit field. It possesses development capabilities for specimen collection methods and application technologies tailored to various virus characteristics. It holds numerous domestic and international patents. In the case of swabs, it is the only product approved as a Class 2 medical device. Based on US FDA approval and European CE IVD certification, it supplies exclusively in Korea and to more than 60 countries excluding Italy.

A Noble Bio representative explained, "Due to the nature of swabs entering the body, which is unique in in vitro diagnostics, the approval standards and entry barriers are high," adding, "Noble Bio’s transport kits secure the world’s largest production volume based on technological expertise and full in-house production of all processes." He continued, "Current orders for January are 140 million units per month, and orders are increasing monthly," adding, "We plan to complete the expansion quickly and achieve maximum sales."

He emphasized, "This year, not only rapid diagnostic kits for the third quarter but also new diagnostic kits such as neutralizing antibody diagnostic kits that can verify antibody generation after COVID-19 vaccination will be commercialized," and added, "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.