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Breton SME ready to launch massive production of Covid-19 screening tests

2020-04-06T16:45:57.799Z



" Offer mass production of Covid-19 serological tests ": the Breton SME NG Biotech, which has already received an order from the army, will market within three weeks rapid screening tests, with the aim of make six million over the next six months.

Read also: Vaccination against the Covid-19, a race against the clock

Located in Guipry-Messac (Ille-et-Vilaine) about thirty minutes south of Rennes, on the edge of a expressway, the company NG Biotech, founded in 2012 and which has only around forty employees, secure H24, is at the center of many attentions.

In a press release, it was the Ministry of the Armed Forces which announced on Saturday that it had chosen, as the first project to combat Covid-19, " the immunological kit for rapid blood screening for coronavirus infection offered by the company NG Biotech " . With the key a contract up to a million euros funded by the Directorate General of Armament (DGA). Because NG Biotech presents itself as the " only " approved company in France to market this rapid test, " clinically validated " and which could be called upon to play an important role during deconfinement on the still uncertain date.

In relatively cramped premises, men and women in white coats are busy behind funny instruments, where we see strips, reagents or a machine for canning.

" The heart of our know-how and our techno is to develop this type of strips, composed of a central part where we print the various reagents for the detection of IgG-IgM ", antibodies, explains Milovan Stankov, director general, of Serbian origin. " Here, we do not manipulate the virus: we use recombinant proteins from the specific sequence of this virus ," he says.

Priority "at the front"

From the aspect of a pregnancy test, this “ all in one ” device has a lancet, where one pricks oneself at the end of the finger to collect blood, and a manual system which makes it possible to transfer it. . You have to wait about fifteen minutes to know the result in order to know if you have developed immunity. It will cost between ten and fifteen euros, with two possible models (integrated lancing device or with a kit).

This family-run SME, used to selling blood pregnancy tests and others to determine if the bacteria are resistant to antibiotics in around fifty countries, must now organize themselves to ensure this brutal increase in their production. Proof of this is that a handling company used a crane on Monday morning to deposit prefabricated buildings and enlarge the premises.

In May, we want to produce 500,000, then 800,000 in June. And it will go crescendo ", knowing that the first beneficiaries will be those who are" at the front "of the disease and not the general public, explains the CEO Miroslav Stankov-Pugès, son of the DG, who says he is" oversold "of requests, including from abroad.

On the territory of this commune of around 7,500 inhabitants, another production site is due to open in early May. " We have to recruit a hundred additional people on our two sites, " said the CEO. This morning I validated 250,000 euros to support growth. In addition to the orders that the CEO received from the army, I also announced our desire to buy them at the regional level , "declared the president of the Brittany region Loïg Chesnais-Girard (PS).

Asked about the importance of these antibody detection tests, the president of the region mentioned the fishing sector, which was hit hard: " our fishermen want to know if they can go to sea for several days ", without infected person on the boat, explains Mr. Chesnais-Girard.

Source: lefigaro

All business articles on 2020-04-06

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