Belgian biotech company ZenTech has started producing coronavirus antibody tests. AFP
A Belgian biotech firm has started producing tests to rapidly detect antibodies against coronavirus infections – part of a push several countries are making to determine who might be immune.
Liege-based company ZenTech SA said on Tuesday that it has started making tens of thousands of the government-certified tests and plans to ramp up output to eventually make up to three million per month.
Founder and CEO Jean-Claude Havaux said diagnosis takes just 10-15 minutes and “sensitivity is 100 per cent – meaning all patients who have Covid-19 antibodies, we see them with our test”.
He emphasised that the test kits were only for medical professionals, first in Belgium and then later in other countries in the EU and beyond. They are not for the public to use at home.
“We don’t want and don’t intend for, these tests to be used by just anybody. It’s not a pregnancy test. It’s really pretty complicated to carry out and to interpret the results,” said Havaux.
Antibody, or serology, tests are seen as a crucial tool for determining who has had Covid-19 – especially non-symptomatic carriers – and could, therefore, be immune to it, at least for a time.
Such tests could possibly pave the way to allowing people to return to work as countries mull easing widespread lockdown measures.
That could be especially important for healthcare workers on the front line of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
As a result, labs in several countries are racing to roll out huge numbers of reliable testing kits.
However, the World Health Organisation has warned that while reliable testing is welcome, the presence of Covid-19 antibodies is not proof that an individual is immune.
Even if there was immunity, it is unknown how long it might last, it says.
Dr Pascale Huynen, clinic head of the microbiology unit in Liege’s university hospital – which confirmed ZenTech’s test was reliable to 97 per cent – also underscored the point.
“Nobody knows if the [Covid-19] antibodies are protective,” she said, adding that scientists also do not know how long immunity could last, or whether the new coronavirus might mutate around any initial immunity, as happens with the flu.
“This is a virus that we don’t know very well,” said Huynen.
She said ZenTech’s test simply indicates whether a patient has “come into contact” with Covid-19 with a positive or negative result.
It does not show the level of antibody response.
