South Korea’s top bio name Celltrion said Tuesday that it will release a new COVID-19 test kit for overseas markets next month.

The new point-of-care test (POCT) kit jointly developed with local diagnostic kit maker BBB features enhanced sensitivity and analyzation within 20 minutes based on antigen detection, the company said. A CE Mark application was filed for the kit and approval is expected to come later this month.

The POCT diagnostic kit uses a portable analyzation device to get on-site results from collected specimen.

Celltrion said POCT provides the advantage of an antigen diagnostic kit capable of screening patients in the early stages of infection without antibody formation, as well as the rapidity of a conventional rapid diagnostic kit and high sensitivity of molecular diagnosis. In a recent prototype test, the company’s new kit showed a sensitivity level of more than 95 percent compared to that of a real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) kit just in 20 minutes.

By Kim Byung-ho and Minu Kim

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