South Korea’s health care solutions developer MiCo BioMed claimed Wednesday it has developed a rapid molecular diagnostic system to detect the novel coronavirus with high sensitivity within an hour.

The Konex-listed company founded in 2009 said the system can immediately confirm the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) to be used at airport and port quarantine sites beyond health care centers.

The company developed 30 different kinds of high-risk pathogen diagnostic kits with the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some of them were used to detect bioterrorism pathogens in mobile vehicles during the 2017 U-20 World Cup Games, 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and 2019 Gwangju Asian Swimming Games.

Based on the experience, the company has also developed a real-time PCR kit to detect 2019-nCoV using MiCo BioMed’s LabChip-based real-time PCR rapidly with high accuracy. It is currently awaiting the Emergency Use Approval from the KCDC.

In the near future, the company said it hopes the systems will be applied not only at hospitals but also at airports and harbors, because the viral infection can be identified within an hour

It can also be applied for acute infectious diseases such as the Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Led by former Korean American scientist CEO Kim Sung-woo, MiCo BioMed has been focusing on molecular diagnostics, biological chemistry and immunoassay diagnostics technology.

It recently passed the technical evaluation for relisting on Kosdaq with A grade and preperations are currently underway. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)