Nations with high rates of coronavirus testing such as South Korea and Germany are also leading the world in commercialising COVID-19 diagnostic tests – far outstripping the domestic UK and US diagnostic industries, new research shows.
Researchers also argue that lax EU regulations for diagnostic devices could make the region a “dumping ground for poor quality tests”.
A team from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Sociology has produced what they say may be the most comprehensive global dataset of companies developing molecular diagnostic tests for COVID-19.
They found that 88% of South Korean firms working on COVID-19, and 80% of those in Germany, now have tests either on the market or ready to be rolled out. In the UK, just 54% of firms developing COVID-19 tests have a commercialised product. The US also lags behind at 67%.
China has 93 diagnostic firms working on COVID-19, the overall highest number, 90% of which have commercialised tests.
The latest analysis is available on a website set up by CancerScreen, a Cambridge research project funded by the European Research Council on the political economy of diagnostic innovation.
“The COVID-19 testing strategies adopted by different countries are now under intense public scrutiny,” said Dr Stuart Hogarth, who leads the research.
“The UK and US have been criticised for failing to ramp up capacity compared to places such as Germany and South Korea. We can see this playing out in the global molecular diagnostics industry.”
Image: COVID-19 testing at Kadena Air Base, Japan
Credit: Senior Airman Rhett Isbell
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge