Chinese healthcare companies hit COVID jackpot with home-test kits

Overseas sales boom as omicron rages, but pandemic's end will clip windfall

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The omicron variant has sparked huge demand for rapid antigen testing kits. © Reuters

CISSY ZHOU, Nikkei staff writer

HONG KONG -- Andon Health suffered through years of losses until the Chinese medical device maker shifted to exporting COVID-19 home testing kits, unleashing a cash windfall that is also boosting the fortunes of other mainland health care operators.

Now, Andon is scrambling to hire more workers at several facilities that churn out as many as 200 million test kits a month, after it inked a series of contracts worth about $2.1 billion to supply devices to the U.S. military and government health agencies.

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