ARISTA Biotech has announced plans to set up a production facility with cleanroom environment in Hong Kong for the manufacturing of COVID-19 antigen rapid testing kits to help meet rapidly-increasing local demand.
The company is also working with the Hong Kong government to donate at least 15,000 of its rapid testing kit to facilities including elderly homes, schools, and hospitals, and other public institutions.
The new production facility, which will employ about 100 staff, is expected to be in operation by the third quarter and will produce as many as 2 million packs a month.
Since its founding in 2020, ARISTA and its partners have received approval and sold over 100 million testing kits in countries and regions including the UK, Germany, Australia, Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore and many other European and Southeast Asian countries. ARISTA currently manufactures the testing kits from its home market Singapore and other locations. Over the past month the company has sold more than 500,000 kits in Hong Kong and it expects sales in the city to reach 10 million kits for the full year of 2022.
"Hong Kong is now entering a critical phase in its fight against the pandemic, and we want to do our part to help," said Eric Tang, Co-founder and CEO for Hong Kong at ARISTA. "The donation programme will provide immediate relief to those groups that are most in need. In the longer term, by setting production facility locally, we are giving ourselves more flexibility and agility to adjust production according to public needs, while minimising logistical issues."
The ARISTA Rapid Test Kit
The ARISTA COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test is confirmed to be able to detect over 400+ variants, including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Delta Plus, Lambda, and Omicron with similar sensitivities. The kit is available at most major pharmacies, supermarkets and other retail locations in Hong Kong.