ART kit suppliers say stock sufficient to meet surge in demand

Distributors here are confident they are able to meet the rising demand for Covid-19 antigen rapid test (ART) kits, with months' worth of stock in warehouses and shipments coming in every week to meet the surge in orders.

This follows the rush for ART kits at many pharmacy retailers, where shelves remain empty after customers snapped up kits earlier this week.

Ms Jes Lim, managing director of SPD Scientific which supplies SD Biosensor kits, told The Straits Times that its warehouses can hold some 20 million kits at a time. She added that orders have increased threefold and that it receives a few million kits each week.

"There is a healthy and sufficient supply of ART kits to cater for the increase in demand," said Ms Lim yesterday. "The current order size can be adjusted at any time, even up to millions if necessary."

Since May, the company has had an agreement with the South Korean manufacturers for larger shipments that can be delivered at a week's notice.

Its product is one of six brands of self-test ART kits authorised by the Health Sciences Authority.

It provides kits to retailers, construction and food and beverage (F&B) firms, and to households as part of the Government's initiative to give test kits to all homes.

A spokesman for Becton Dickinson (BD), which supplies BD Veritor kits, told ST it is able to meet demand. It holds a few months' worth of kits, which are stored in a temperature-controlled facility.

He said: "We can mobilise shipments very quickly as our supply chain is agile, and we have no concerns about the current supply-and-demand situation with our partners."

He said demand has been rising in line with the approach to increase the use of ART to rapidly detect cases in the community.

The BD kits are used at several venues including borders, dormitories, hospitals and GP clinics. They were also used in many schools during the recent test kit distribution.

Mr Wayne Yap, Unison Collaborative's director, said the pharmaceutical company, which distributes Abbott Panbio kits, is receiving weekly shipments to meet orders from its customers, such as retailers and corporate buyers in construction, F&B and logistics.

On Monday, pharmacy retailers Guardian and Watsons said demand had risen five times compared with previous weeks.

A Watsons spokesman said yesterday: "We have managed to secure some replenishment stocks and these will be piped in to our stores gradually from tomorrow.

"We expect the demand to remain high amid the surge in Covid-19 cases and will continue to monitor the situation closely."

A Guardian spokesman said more supplies will be coming in over the next two weeks and it is actively restocking its shelves.

Singapore's director of medical services Kenneth Mak said on Monday: "We actually have a lot of test kits, but I think it's just an issue of supply, distribution and allocation."