SHENZHEN Enzyme Infagen (Hongmed Infagen), an industrial transformation base for the research achievements of the Marshall Bio-medicine Engineering Lab in Dapeng New Area, has commenced clinical testing of nucleic acid reagents for detecting novel coronavirus.

After testing and approval by the drug authority, the reagents will be on the market for the treatment of novel coronavirus.

Hongmed Infagen, which is located in the Life Science Industrial Park in Shenzhen International Bio-Valley in Dapeng, started production Feb. 15 and is now working on clinical trials of the newly developed reagents.

“If everything goes smoothly, we can get the registration certification through fast approval from the drug authority in one or two months,” Hou Zhibo, manager of the company, said in an interview with Shenzhen Economic Daily.

In a video conference Jan. 26, shortly after Chinese authorities declared the containment of the viral pneumonia a Level-I public health emergency, the research team decided to develop testing reagents using its bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) genomic test platform.

“The testing theories for H. pylori and coronavirus are the same as both are pathogenic microorganisms. We are engaging in developing reagents according to the technical standards of national laboratories after acquiring sequencing of the virus from the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data,” said Hou.

“We would have started post-festival production Feb. 1 if there had been no coronavirus outbreak. The reagent for H. pylori had brought millions of yuan in revenue to the company in 2019, and in 2020, we are planning to expand market share in digestive system fast-testing,” said Hou.

Barry J. Marshall, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005 for discovering that the bacterium H. pylori is the cause of most peptic ulcers, would have come to Shenzhen for his regular trip to the city every two months Feb. 15 but was delayed because of the outbreak and has been working online through video conference to discuss and solve production problems, according to Hou.

His research institute was established in 2017 in Shenzhen to work closely with local hospitals in the city and contribute research to the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal tract diseases.

“Marshall decided to develop reagents for fast-testing respiratory system viruses, and our goal is to complete the research on N-in-One reagents through cooperation with partner hospitals and research institutes. We are trying to put the products on the market in autumn and winter,” said Hou. (Han Ximin)