SHENZHEN Mindray Bio- Medical Electronics Co. has agreed to acquire HyTest Invest Oy, a supplier of raw materials used in tests for diseases such as COVID-19, to gain independence in making and developing core materials for testing reagents.

Mindray’s purchase of Finland-based HyTest and its subsidiaries for an estimated 545 million euros (US$661 million), agreed to in a deal reached Saturday, would give it the resources of a major developer and manufacturer of antibodies and antigens for diagnostic products, the Shenzhen-listed company said in a filing Sunday.

“Self-research and self-production of raw materials for testing reagents is an important guarantee of the reagents’ quality,” Mindray said in an call with investors Sunday.

“Mindray’s current capacity falls behind the mainstream level of the industry. Through the acquisition, the company will ... increase the proportion of core materials made in-house,” it said, according to a recording of the call published yesterday.

HyTest has already become core material supplier to Mindray and maintained more than a decade of partnership with the Chinese firm, Mindray said.

Shares of Mindray, which sells products from life-support devices to medical imaging systems globally, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2006 and its stock price hit a record US$42.45 in 2013.

The firm delisted from the American exchange after completing a US$1.9 billion privatization deal in March 2016.

In October 2018, the firm relisted on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s ChiNext board through an initial public offering. (SD-Agencies)