◼COVID-19 / VIRUS Bloomberg Businessweek March 16, 202056
KRISZTIAN BOCSI/BLOOMBERG●Shortly after New Year’s, Olfert Landt started
seeing news reports of a strange disease spreading in
China. The German scientist, who’s developed tests
for ailments ranging from swine flu to SARS, sensed
an opportunity—and a new mission. He spent the
next few days quizzing virologists at Berlin’s Charité
hospital and scouring the internet for more infor‑
mation on what soon became known as the novel
coronavirus, and by Jan. 10 he’d introduced a via‑
ble test kit. His phone hasn’t stopped ringing since.
“Everyone here is putting in 12‑ to 14‑hour shifts,”
the ponytailed Landt says as he rushes through the
corridors of TIB Molbiol Syntheselabor GmbH, the
Berlin biotech company he started three decades
ago. “We’re nearing our limit.”
In the past two months, Landt and his staff at
the company’s production facility—a former indus‑
trial building just south of the disused Tempelhof
airport—have produced 40,000 coronavirus diag‑
nostic kits, enough for about 4 million individual
tests. TIB has reoriented its business toward
coronavirus, running its machines through the
night and on weekends to make the kits, which
sell for about €160 ($180) apiece. As orders have
poured in from the World Health Organization,
national health authorities, and laboratories in
some 60 countries, TIB’s revenue in February
tripled from the same month in 2019.
TIB, which last year generated €18 million in
sales, is one of about a score of test‑kit produc‑
ers worldwide. Companies such as LGC Biosearch
Technologies in Britain, Spain’s CerTest Biotec,and Seoul‑based
Seegene Inc. are
seeing an explo‑
sion in demand as
authorities seek
to slow the virus’s
spread. South Korea
has tested more
than 210,000 people
and Italy more than 60,000. Efforts in the U.S. got
off to a rocky start when a diagnostic tool from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention proved
to be flawed. The U.S. has since changed the test
and taken steps to expand availability, but the CDC
has warned kits won’t be ready in the numbers
promised by the Trump administration.● How do virus
tests work?
Over the years, TIB has made tests aimed at
diagnosing more than 100 ailments. For the corona‑
virus, Landt teamed up with Roche Holding AG to
distribute the kit, which works with the Swiss drug‑
maker’s diagnostic machines. The tests use what’s
called the polymerase chain reaction, a diagnostic
method recommended by the WHO that ampli‑
fies the virus’s genetic code so it can be detected
before the onset of symptoms. The kit comes with
two vials: a primer to help detect an infection,
and a synthetically engineered piece of the virus,
which labs use to produce a surefire positive match
to ensure their machines are working correctly.
A lab technician combines these ingredients with
a patient’s mucus sample—usually from a throat or
nasal swab—and results are usually available in a
few hours.
The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s equiva‑
lent to the CDC, is urging scientists to come up with
a simple tool that patients can administer them‑
selves and get almost immediate results—something
like home pregnancy tests. An interim step could
be revised procedures such as asking patients to▲ Landt◀ TIB’s lab has
been running flat
out for weeks▶ Each kit costs €160
and can be used for
about 100 testsWhy is testing so
complicated?