Singapore's Camtech, JN Medsys to boost supply of Covid-19 test kits

TWO Singapore firms, Camtech Diagnostics and JN Medsys, are planning to boost the production of two Covid-19 test kits after obtaining provisional authorisation from Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA).

This comes as demand for diagnostic test kits rises amid the novel coronavirus outbreak from various countries globally.

To meet the projected demand, Camtech Holdings is planning to expand manufacturing in Singapore for the two test kits, according to Kuok Meng-Han, the group's founder and managing director.

Camtech Diagnostics is the research and product development arm of local technology company Camtech Holdings. The latter is an investor in life science firm JN Medsys.

The companies jointly announced on Tuesday that they have obtained provisional authorisation from Singapore's HSA for two Covid-19 test kits - a rapid test kit which produces results in 10 minutes, and a nucleic acid test kit which takes two hours to produce results but has more than 95 per cent accuracy in identifying the coronavirus.

Having a provisional authorisation from HSA allows companies to supply their Covid-19 test kits to healthcare institutions, private hospitals, medical clinics and clinical laboratories in Singapore.

In addition to HSA's provisional licence, JN Medsys has also obtained approval for its test kit from the Food and Drug Administration of the Philippines. It is also in the process of getting approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.

The announcement added that JN Medsys kits have been clinically validated in Singapore and abroad.

Camtech Diagnostics' Covid-19 test is called the Covid-19 IgG/IgM rapid qualitative screening test, which can be a tool in helping to screen and identify asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus. That said, the test should not be used for confirmatory testing or as a sole basis of diagnosis, the statement noted.

Meanwhile, JN Medsys' test kit is a nucleic acid test that detects the virus which causes Covid-19. Called the ProTect COVID-19 RT-qPCR Kit, the PCR kit identifies the genetic material of the Covid-19 virus isolated from infected patient samples using the reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction method.

This method is also known as the gold standard method due to its high sensitivity and specificity to identify the virus even at low copies.

The PCR kit also uses protocol from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Johnson Ng, JN Medsys chief executive officer, added that PCR kits have been deployed to China, Malaysia and Indonesia. The PCR kits will be distributed to Asean, Europe and South America soon.

"Digital PCR is already a core product for our existing business, and we have now extended our business line to PCR kits to cater to worldwide demand," he added.

Both Camtech Diagnostics and JN Medsys previously received Spring Singapore innovation grant funding, as well as private investment from local angel investors.