“A hurricane:” Virus storm sends test-makers into overdrive

GUIPRY, France (AP) — As countless millions of people in Europe waste hours in lines for COVID-19 tests and scour their nasal passages with self-test kits at home, at the other end of the chain, workers are straining to meet the demand.

At NG Biotech, production lines are humming, spitting out freshly packaged tests every second or so. The French start-up is recruiting more hands so its workforce that has already expanded six-fold during the pandemic can manufacture night and day.

“It has been like a hurricane,” says Milovan Stankov-Pugès, co-founder and CEO of the test-kit manufacturer in western France’s Brittany region.

The company ramped up to more than 2.5 million tests delivered in December and is now scaling up again with the aim of soon reaching 5 million per month, Stankov-Pugès said.

“This is a 10-times increase in only three months,” he said. “This wave took everyone by surprise.”

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