Eight of the most prominent test makers are navigating a whiplash marketplace.
s the Omicron wave of the pandemic swept across America this winter, makers of at-home Covid tests faced a unique business dilemma. Seemingly overnight, demand for their products became infinite. Massive government contracts were up for grabs. By mid-January, the Biden Administration had promised to buy 1 billion of the tests. But it was almost equally certain that demand for the tests would vanish—at least temporarily—by the time spring arrived.
It was a whole new line of business for iHealth, which is majority-owned by China’s publicly traded Andon Health and made stuff like blood-pressure monitors and thermometers before the pandemic. Its contract manufacturer in Tianjin, China, also owned by Andon, made kits round-the-clock and even stayed open with partial staff on Chinese New Year’s. To help get the tests to the States, iHealth chartered 100 airplanes.