(Yicai) March 26 -- Sansure Biotech and other Chinese medical device manufacturers, whose revenue was badly hit by a drop in demand for Covid-19 detection sets, have seen a jump in sales of screening kits for respiratory diseases after a wave of influenza-like infections spread across the country last year.

Sansure’s sales of its six respiratory pathogens-in-one, Influenza A-Influenza B-Covid-19-in-one and other screening kits for flu-like infections surged almost eight times last year from a year earlier to CNY400 million (USD55.4 million), according to the Changsha-based firm’s latest earnings report.

This pushed up revenue from common pathogen test kits by more than two-and-a-half-fold over the period to CNY784 million (USD108.6 million), it said. It will help offset an expected 30 percent plunge in profit and revenue to CNY360 million and CNY1 billion (USD138.5 million) respectively, largely caused by slumping sales of its Covid-19 screening kits, it said.

Accurate detection of respiratory diseases is very important as while many flu-like diseases, such as influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus and mycoplasma pneumoniae, have similar symptoms, their treatment is different.

Joint detection kits have become more popular in hospitals and the demand for home test kits has been rising since the Covid-19 outbreak, Yang Yifan, head of Sansure’s respiratory disease detection reagents section, told Yicai recently. The firm is forming a hospital-based, community-based and home-based respiratory disease testing service.

Wondfo Biotech too has experienced an uptick in sales of its influenza test kits, even though the Guangzhou-based firm is bracing for an up to 60 percent dive in net profit last year to as little as CNY476 million (USD66 million) due to tumbling sales of its Covid-19 detection sets.

Editor: Kim Taylor