A health worker conducts COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test.File photo:Xinhua

A number of listed Chinese COVID-19 prevention related companies recently announced their financial results for the first half of 2022, revealing mixed results amid a complicated epidemic landscape. 

China's COVID-19 antigen detection kit producer Andon Health Co recorded a year-on-year increase of more than 27,000 percent during the first six months of 2022, the company said. However, some other companies saw their business revenues drop 90 percent during the same period. 

Andon Health Co on July 14 revealed its half year revenue forecast, which the company put at between 15.1 billion yuan ($2.23 billion) to 15.5 billion yuan.

The company underscored in the half-yearly report that market demand for COVID-19 antigen detection kits saw a significant increase due to the pandemic situation in the US during the period. Andon Health Co received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the US Food &Drug Administration (FDA) in November 2021, which allowed its products to be procured by the US government agencies.

The FDA's authorization carried no strict technical requirements, so Andon's boost in revenue may not last for a long period, Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Wuhan Easy Diagnosis Biomedicine Co said in its half-year report that their antigen detection kit had been used in Shanghai and Northeast China's Jilin Province during local COVID-19 outbreak earlier this year, and the company saw a significant year-on-year increase in export volume. 

Zhang noted that due to several disadvantages of antigen detection kits including lower accuracy rate than the nucleic acid tests, self-use requirements and lack of standards for correct sampling will limit their use in the domestic market.

For nucleic acid testing, revenues of COVID-19 testing firms Lepu Medical Technology Co and Shanghai Kehua Bio-Engineering Co dropped by nearly 80 and 90 percent, respectively. Lepu said in its report that the company's income declined due to the normalization of local epidemic prevention and control. 

"The normalization of epidemic control measures has largely compressed the cost for nucleic acid testing nationwide, which would reduce company revenues," said Zhang, noting that test firms should increase R&D investment to strengthen competitiveness in the market. 

China's medical authorities vowed at the end of May, 2022 to further reduce the price for nucleic acid tests across the country, capping the prices of single and multiple nucleic acid test under 16 and 5 yuan for each person, respectively, by June 10. 

Global Times