China’s reliance on mass testing to achieve “zero-COVID” has brought huge profits to virus test-kit makers.
A number of biotech companies have reported substantial profit growth for the first half of 2022. Among them, Tianjin City’s Jiu’an Medical Electronics Co., Ltd. posted a net profit of over 15.1 billion yuan ($2.24 billion), an increase of 270 fold from the same period last year.
Jiu’an Medical actually lost money in 2021, but the company realized exponential revenue growth this year by selling COVID test kits. In a performance report released on July 14, the company stated that its net profit in the first half of the year was expected to be 15.1 billion to 15.5 billion yuan ($2.24 billion to $2.3 billion). During the same period last year, the company had a net loss of $710,000. The profit growth this year would be 275 times if this year’s net profit ends up being $2.24 billion, or 282 times if the net profit is $2.3 billion….