(Eagle News)–At least 120,000 coronavirus disease 2019 locally developed test kits will be available starting Saturday, the Department of Science and Technology said on Monday, March 30.
DOST said the Manila HealthTek Inc. will manufacture the test kits following the arrival of the first batch of reagents.
Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Peña said they will prioritize the production of 26,000 test kits for field implementation and distribution to certain hospitals that can do the testing.
“From April 4 (Saturday) to 25, there will be a field implementation for the 26,000 testing kits funded under the DOST and the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH) Project,” he said, noting that the hospitals were Philippine General Hospital, Makati Medical Center, The Medical City, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, Southern Philippines Medical Center, and Baguio General Hospital.
He said the remaining 93,000 will be sold by HealthTek at P1300, cheaper than the P8000 kit used by hospitals.
He said HealthTek has received orders from the private sector, which has said it would donate these to the government.
“We have informed the FDA that requirements for (Certificate of Product Registration) Certification will be submitted on Wednesday, April 1 at the latest,” he said, adding that
He added that the CPR from the Food and Drug Administration Philippines is expected to be issued on Friday, April 3.