Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
COVID-19 test kit maker to build second production facility
Top officials of Solgent and EDGC, including EDGC co-CEO Shin Sang-cheol, third from left in the front row, during a groundbreaking ceremony for Solgent's second production facility in Daejeon, June 10. Courtesy of EDGC
By Jung Min-ho
By Jung Min-ho
SolGent, a subsidiary of Korean genome sequencing company EDGC, has begun building its second COVID-19 detection kit production facility in Daejeon to meet increasing demand overseas.
When completed near its first manufacturing plant in September, the new one is expected to be capable of producing kits for 30 million tests a week, the company said Monday.
The kits (DiaPlexQ) have been exported to more than 50 countries, including Germany and the United States. It has received CE marking, a certification that demonstrates conformity with health and safety standards for products sold in Europe, and emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“The company's first-quarter revenues this year have already reached 95 percent of revenues of the whole of last year,” an official told The Korea Times.
Last Wednesday, 100 officials of Solgent and EDGC attended the groundbreaking ceremony.
“Thanks to Solgent's advanced technology and know-how, it could take a major step forward during the pandemic,” EDGC co-CEO Shin Sang-cheol said during the event.
In a statement, Seok DO-su and You Jae-hyung, co-CEOs of Solgent, said they would continue to build trust with customers around the world with top-quality products and innovations.