COVID-19 rapid antigen test (RAT) INDICAID(R), developed by Hong Kong 
biotechnology start-up PHASE Scientific International Limited (PHASE), has been 
named by the government as one of the designated rapid tests when care homes 
resume visitation on Monday. The endorsement came after the Food and Health 
Bureau's satisfactory audit of INDICAID's community dual-track pilot results.

On 30 April 2021, the Social Welfare Department announced the conditional 
resumption of visits to residential care homes for the elderly and residential 
care homes for persons with disabilities and designated INDICAID(R) as one of 
the three (the other two are Roche Diagnostics and Abbott Laboratories), and 
the only locally developed, COVID-19 RAT to be used by the visitors. To gain 
entry to these facilities, visitors that are fully vaccinated may present their 
negative COVID-19 RAT results within 24-hour prior to the visit.

Dr. Ricky Chiu Yin-to, Founder and CEO of PHASE Scientific, welcomes the 
official endorsement of INDICAID(R) RAT. "While rapid antigen test is not a 
substitute of the gold-standard PCR test, its lower cost and ease-of-use are 
conducive to more frequent testing and faster results, which are critical to 
outbreak prevention and control. According to US Centers for Disease Control 
(CDC), serial antigen testing conducted weekly is able to offset the lower 
sensitivity of antigen tests while delivering advantages that PCR testing-only 
cannot provide, despite the higher sensitivity of the latter." Dr Chiu sees it 
as an important step for policymakers and the community to support wider 
adoption of RAT particularly in helping resume socioeconomic activities and 
'normalcy' in steps.

INDICAID(R) COVID-19 rapid antigen test is a CE-marked lateral flow immunoassay 
designed for the qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 antigens in direct nasal 
swab samples. It is developed in Hong Kong with reliable product quality and is 
easy-to-use, with no special equipment or facilities needed. Results are 
available fast within 20 minutes, and are clinically validated with world's 
largest dual-track testing with over 9,200 samples with high sensitivity and 
specificity. INDICAID(R) has been widely adopted in hospitals, government and 
private corporations, supermarkets, hotels and schools for regular screening in 
Hong Kong and overseas. INDICAID(R) is currently available in 33 countries, and 
in the process of obtaining approval for emergency use authorization by the US 
Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

SOURCE PHASE Scientific