Innocent Madonko in HANGZHOU, China
HANGZHOU Ustar Biotechnology Company, a giant molecular diagnostic firm with a footprint around the world, is keen to expand its presence in Zimbabwe where it established operations in 2019 and has been growing steadily ever since.
So far, the company, which was founded in 2005, has supplied 94 pieces of molecular diagnostic equipment to 67 hospitals in Zimbabwe which has been distributed through the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
The Point of Care Molecular Diagnostic Technology is used to test for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV, HPV, screening for respiratory pathogens such as influenza, RSV and SARS-CoV-2 tropical fevers (Dengue, Zika and Monkeypox), and gastro infections.
The company entered the Zimbabwean market during the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic and was instrumental in assisting the Government to contain the deadly disease through timely testing of the population.
Their testing kits were used as the primary case-and-control standard in large scale prospective Covid 19 vaccine effectiveness studies across six provinces of Zimbabwe, evaluating the protection window of inactivated vaccines during Omicron variant dominance.
Addressing a delegation of Zimbabwean senior health care professionals attending a two-week seminar on Public Health Management at the company’s headquarters here today, the Chief Executive Officer of Hangzhou Ustar Biotechnologies, Mr Yizhi Lin, said they were delighted with the response from the Zimbabwean
market and had established a strong working relationship with local partners.
He said through strategic supply-chain partnerships with entities such as Satewave Technologies, they had managed to distribute diagnostic products in Zimbabwe targeted at major public health priorities.
Mr Lin said using their Cross-Priming Isothermal Amplification technology, they had managed to find active TB and Multidrug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases in remote communities in the country.
“We are honoured to welcome a delegation of Zimbabwean health care managers and specialists at our premises and hope they will learn more about our company and appreciate its operations.
“Zimbabwe is among the countries in Africa where we have a big presence and we would want to expand our operations over there. It is therefore a pleasure to welcome you all,” he said.
The company has a team of medical hardware engineers in Zimbabwe who maintain professional certifications specifically for Ustar Biotechnology systems and assist in local medical laboratory installations while also providing maintenance for diagnostic equipment distributed across southern Africa.
Speaking at the same occasion, the Chief Director of Public Health in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Celestino Dhege, said infectious diseases were still a big issue in Zimbabwe and diagnostics was a critical area in combating them.
“We are glad for the opportunity to come to source and appreciate how you operate. Infectious diseases are an issue for us and we hope the close cooperation we have with you will continue. You rmethod of TB testing is particularly suited to children,” he said.
Ustar Biotechnologies is widely credited with developing equipment-free, rapid nucleic acid amplification platforms such as EasyNAT and PortNAT which allow for “sample-in, result-out” testing in low-resource environments without needing a full polymerise chain reaction (PCR) set up.
Earlier in the day, the team of medical experts from Zimbabwe, who include Provincial Medical Directors, District Medical Officers, epidemiologists, infant mortality and maternity specialists, laboratory technicians and hospital administrators from the country’s 10 provinces, had toured Zhejiang Medicines and Health
Products Import and Export Company, a pharmaceutical wholesaler with customers in more than 100 countries across Europe, Asia, America and Africa.
The company, a subsidiary of Zhejiang International Business Group, evolved from a State-owned enterprise in 1999 and has been listed among China’s top 500 exporters for 13 consecutive years.
