Shanghai to start manufacturing antigen test kits

Shanghai will establish a production base of COVID-19 antigen test kits with a daily capacity of 5 to 10 million to better satisfy testing needs of the 25 million permanent residents in the city.

With the support of the city and Pudong district government, a new production base of Shanghai Outdo Biotech Co Ltd, the first enterprise approved to produce COVID-19 antigen test kits in the city in early April, will be established within the Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, covering an area of 10,000 square meters.

The production base with advanced automation facilities is expected to pass GMP certification by the end of this year, said the enterprise.

Outdo Biotech, which has a daily capacity of 3 million, has provided its products to millions of households for testing over the past weeks.

However, the majority of capacity so far comes from commissioned production at an enterprise in Wuhan city, Hubei province, as the factory in Shanghai lacks raw material supply amid the COVID outbreak.

Gao Hengjun, general manager of Outdo, said the company's production site abides by closed-loop management throughout the process to ensure production safety.