Sorrento Therapeutics has acquired a majority stake in Zhengzhou Fortune Bioscience (Zhengzhou FortuneBio), a Chinese diagnostic manufacturer, for an undisclosed price.

According to Sorrento Therapeutics, the acquisition is in response to drastic increasing demands around the world and planned product build-up expecting possible additional approvals for its COVISTIX Covid-19 virus rapid antigen detection test.

Zhengzhou FortuneBio is said to specialize in manufacturing lateral flow diagnostic tests with various approved products sold in 20 plus countries for pregnancy tests, drug abuse, and fecal occult blood test kits.

The Chinese diagnostic manufacturer has an ISO 13885 manufacturing plant and can produce tens of millions of lateral flow tests in a month. Presently, Zhengzhou FortuneBio is said to be ramping up its production capabilities to meet the global demand for COVISTIX, which is a sensitive and rapid antigen diagnostic test for detecting the SARS-CoV-2 virus nucleocapsid antigen in nasal samples of patients.

Dr. Henry Ji — Chairman and CEO of Sorrento Therapeutics said: “COVISTIX demand is increasing rapidly worldwide due to its high sensitivity as compared with other EUA-approved tests. By acquiring a majority stake in FortuneBio, Sorrento is in a better position to rapidly respond to the ever-changing demand of rapid COVID testing and broaden our diagnostic product offering to other areas such as early cancer diagnostics.

“In addition to providing product revenue from an established portfolio of approved diagnostic tests, FortuneBio gives Sorrento an experienced diagnostic research, development and manufacturing team and an ISO-certified facility to rapidly advance and commercialize our antibody-enabled diagnostic products in synergy with our antibody therapeutics.”

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