RE: Innova to start manufacturing in Wales25 May 2021 08:22
May 25, 2021 4:00 am by Anna Gross in London
The world’s biggest rapid Covid-19 test maker will start manufacturing in the UK, with a factory in Wales set to begin producing millions of tests a day this summer.
Dan Elliott, chief executive of California-based Innova, told the Financial Times the company was “making large investments into the UK” to produce the tests for domestic use and export.
“The UK is a key market to us,” he said. “We’ve been a good partner to the government, the government’s been a good partner to us.”
The government has been heavily reliant on Innova to support its Moonshot testing vision despite its ambitions to bolster the UK’s diagnostics sector and the fact that the company has come under heavy scrutiny over the accuracy of its devices.
Innova, which is owned by private equity firm Pasaca Capital, has supplied the UK with more than 1bn tests produced in the Fujian province of China, as part of contracts worth more than ÂŁ3bn.