Kim Forest Enterprise Co (金萬林), which focuses on molecular testing, yesterday said it has applied to receive marketing approval for its non-invasive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test products, hoping to meet rising demand for COVID-19 test kits as cases in Taiwan rise.
The company’s reagents that obtained regulatory approval in June 2020 test material from a person’s nasal cavity and pharynx, while its latest reagents test saliva, allowing pain-free sample collection, Kim Forest Enterprise said in a statement.
“We hope that this new product, if approved, can ease the pain and the pressure on paramedics, and also help speed up examinations,” the company said.
Photo: CNA
Kim Forest Enterprise said that it is confident its products can detect the latest virus variants, as its products are examined regularly by the US Food and Drug Administration after it became the first Taiwanese company to obtain emergency use authorization in the US for its COVID-19 test kits, reagents and machines.
Revenue for last month increased 54 percent annually to NT$39 million (US$1.31 million), the New Taipei City-based firm said, adding that cumulative revenue in the first four months of this year expanded 46.8 percent to NT$161 million as demand for its testing machines and services increased significantly amid a surge in local COVID-19 cases.
Established to assist hospitals in Taipei with COVID-19 testing, its laboratory last month partnered with more clinics and hospitals to total 30 as of the end of last month, Kim Forest Enterprise said, adding that it expects to collaborate with more after the Central Epidemic Command Center added 190 clinics to those approved to offer PCR testing.
Overall, it has an upbeat outlook for its business in the second quarter, Kim Forest Enterprise added.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts