Hong Kong coronavirus test kit maker Phase Scientific partners with local laboratory to offer quicker, cheaper kit

Phase Scientific International, a start-up backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ties up with ONCO Medical Laboratory to offer Covid-19 tests

PSI’s chairman says the company’s patented methodology can improve the accuracy of its biological diagnostic tests

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Some 3.75 million Covid-19 tests have been conducted in Hong Kong so far this year since the start of outbreak. Photo: SOPA Images via ZUMA Wire

Published: 7:30am, 17 Nov 2020Updated: 1:32pm, 17 Nov 2020

Corrected [11:08am, 17 Nov, 2020]

[11:08am, 17 Nov, 2020]
Corrects numbers in Covid-19 tests for September and October in penultimate paragraph

Phase Scientific International (PSI), a Hong Kong medical diagnostic products maker, has automated a key Covid-19 testing process, allowing it to improve the speed and reliability of the tests. It has also entered into an exclusive partnership with a local laboratory to offer the tests at a much lower cost.

PSI said that ONCO Medical Laboratory, which last week was added to the list of laboratories recognised by the Hong Kong government for nucleic acid Covid-19 testing, will only use the company’s products for these tests.

“Through this collaboration … we are now involved in serving end users in the local market,” said Ricky Chiu Yin-to, founder and CEO of PSI.

The biotech start-up has been selling its test kits and reagents to laboratories in India, Brazil, the US and Hong Kong. Since the firm has received funding from the Hong Kong government, the collaboration has allowed it to step up its contribution towards the local community’s effort to fight the pandemic, he added.

Ricky Chiu Yin-to, founder and CEO of Phase Scientific International, says the company’s methodology can enhance a laboratory’s capacity without compromising the accuracy of the Covid-19 tests. Photo: Edmond So

PSI and ONCO join a growing number of companies offering Covid-19 tests, in a bid to capture opportunities from rising demand for tests from the upcoming Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble and the government’s planned stepped-up testing initiative to meet its goal of zero new cases to facilitate reopening of the city’s border with mainland China.

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