Ireland’s pharmaceutical industry has indicated it is gearing up to produce key ingredients for Covid-19 testing which the State is struggling to source on the international market. The industry could produce enough reagent – a key laboratory ingredient which is in short supply – to enable around 500,000 tests to take place, said Matt Moran, director of the pharmaceutical industry lobby group BioPharmaChem Ireland. However, Mr Moran said “we are hopeful we might have a solution in the not too distant future”. The State has struggled to secure sufficient supplies in recent weeks, leading to a reduced level of testing of samples in laboratories. The HSE said it could take until the end of next week to get equipment and reagent from Ireland’s pharma companies into the Covid-19 testing system.

Source: The Irish Times April 02, 2020 00:00 UTC