UP-NIH can produce 8,000 COVID-19 tests kits daily – FDA

MANILA, Philippines — The University of the Philippines-National institute of Health (UP-NIH) can produce 8,000 locally-made test kits per day for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an official of the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) said Monday.

FDA Director General Eric Domingo said that the UP-NIH has 26,000 test kits ready for roll out as the agency recently approved the kits for commercial use.

“Ngayon may naka-stockpile sila na about 26,000 kits at kaya raw nila magproduce ng mga 8,000 per day… Ang maganda nito, kung mayroon na tayong local na manufacturing, mas magiging sutainable at tuluy-tuloy ang supply ng ating kits,” he said in an interview over dzMM.

(As of now, they have a stock of 26,000 kits and they can produce about 8,000 kits per day. What is good about this is, if we can locally manufacture test kits, our supply will be sustainable.)

“‘Yun ang kanilang projection, kapag nag-full blast sila aabot sila ng 8,000 per day na ma-produce,” Domingo added.

(That is their projection, if they go full-blast on production, they can produce about 8,000 kits per day.)

The test kits cost about P1,250 which is cheaper than the test kits bought internationally which cost about P6,000 on average, Domingo said.

The locally-made kits can also give results after two to three hours.

The Department of Health (DOH) earlier received a total of 140,000 test kits as donations, Domingo said, and as of Friday last week, it still has 80,000 test kits left.

It is targeting to conduct 3,000 COVID-19 tests per day by April 14 and 8,000 tests per day by the end of April.

GSG