Kim Forest Enterprise Co (金萬林), which focuses on molecular testing, yesterday said it has applied to receive marketing approval for its non-invasive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test products, hoping to meet rising demand for COVID-19 test kits as cases in Taiwan rise.
The company’s reagents that obtained regulatory approval in June 2020 test material from a person’s nasal cavity and pharynx, while its latest reagents test saliva, allowing pain-free sample collection, Kim Forest Enterprise said in a statement.
“We hope that this new product, if approved, can ease the pain and the pressure on paramedics, and also help speed up examinations,” the company said.
Photo: CNA
Kim Forest Enterprise said that it is confident its products can detect the latest virus variants, as its products are examined regularly by the US Food and Drug Administration after it became the first Taiwanese company to obtain emergency use authorization in the US for its COVID-19 test kits, reagents and machines.
Revenue for last month increased 54 percent annually to NT$39 million (US$1.31 million), the New Taipei City-based firm said, adding that cumulative revenue in the first four months of this year expanded 46.8 percent to NT$161 million as demand for its testing machines and services increased significantly amid a surge in local COVID-19 cases.
Established to assist hospitals in Taipei with COVID-19 testing, its laboratory last month partnered with more clinics and hospitals to total 30 as of the end of last month, Kim Forest Enterprise said, adding that it expects to collaborate with more after the Central Epidemic Command Center added 190 clinics to those approved to offer PCR testing.
Overall, it has an upbeat outlook for its business in the second quarter, Kim Forest Enterprise added.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government should take steps to cut UK reliance on semiconductors from Taiwan because of the threat posed by China, a draft strategy said. Chinese interference or an invasion of Taiwan would threaten Britain’s economy, according to the unpublished strategy seen by Bloomberg. That is because it would compromise supplies to and from Taiwan, which is home to more than 90 percent of the manufacturing capacity for all leading-edge chips, including the world’s pre-eminent silicon foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電). The strategy is important because semiconductors are used in everything from cellphones to cars, and shortages have
BIG SPENDERS: China’s reopening is a key ‘mega-theme’ for the sector, RBC Bank said, but it remains to be seen how much Chinese tourists will buy The European luxury sector is welcoming the end of pandemic lockdowns in China, as the return of big-spending Chinese tourists could sustain further growth. Prior to the pandemic, Chinese tourists visiting Europe were a major source of sales for luxury houses. The Chinese accounted for “a third of luxury purchases in the world and two-thirds of those purchases were made outside China”, said Joelle de Montgolfier, head of the luxury division at management consulting firm Bain & Co. Their return has led RBC Bank to revise up its growth forecast for the sector this year to 11 percent, from 7 percent previously. “China
‘IT HURTS TOO MUCH’: After talks between Blizzard and NetEase over their contract broke down, servers hosting Blizzard’s games in China were shut down Millions of Chinese gamers have lost access to World of Warcraft after a furious dispute between US title owner Activision Blizzard Inc and NetEase Inc (網易), its longtime local partner in the world’s biggest gaming market. Devotees of the popular game took to social media networks to bemoan the loss, with one posting an image of a failed connection message accompanied by crying emojis. “It really hurts my heart,” one wrote. “It hurts, it hurts too much,” another said. Massively popular worldwide, particularly in the 2000s, World of Warcraft — often abbreviated as WoW — is an online multiplayer role-playing game set in
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday accused Alphabet Inc’s Google of abusing its dominance in digital advertising, threatening to dismantle a key business at the heart of one of Silicon Valley’s most successful Internet firms. The US government said Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite, tackling a business that generated about 12 percent of Google’s revenues in 2021, but also plays a vital role in the search engine and cloud company’s overall sales. “Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” the
RSS