Covid-19 test kits exported by Korean companies amounted to $1.2 billion by September this year, tripled from full-year exports of all types of in vitro diagnostics (IVD) test kits and reagents in 2019,, data showed on Thursday.

According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Korean companies shipped $1.2 billion worth Covid-19 test kits to foreign countries from January to September. This is nearly three times bigger last year’s full-year exports of all types of in vitro diagnostics (IVD) test kits and reagents amounting to 485.5 billion won ($431.6 million).

A number of Covid-19 test kits registered with the ministry for export totals 197, which breaks down to 100 PCR test kits, 27 antigen test kits and 70 antibody test kits.

Of these, 19 products from 17 Korean IVD developers were approved by the U.S. FDA under Emergency Use Authorization. Those products include 14 PCR kits, two antigen kits and three antibody kits, the ministry said, and the number of Korean test kits approved by the FDA has steadily increased since the first EUA granted to Osang Healthcare and SD Biosensor products in April.

By Kim Si-gyun and Minu Kim

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