(Yicai Global) April 29 -- Shares in Andon Health continued their meteoric rise today, hitting the exchange-imposed limit up, after the Chinese medical device maker said it has been given the greenlight to sell its Covid-19 home-use kits in Canada.

Andon Health’s share price [SHE:002432] closed up 10 percent at CNY80.66 (USD12). The stock has gained more than 13-fold since early November last year when the US Food and Drug Administration approved Andon’s Covid-19 self-test sets for emergency use.

US subsidiary iHealth Labs has been granted emergency import and sales authorization of its Covid-19 rapid antigen tests by the Canadian government under certain conditions, Tianjin-based Andon said yesterday.

Canadians can now purchase the product directly through online stores, pharmacies and supermarkets without the need for a prescription.

Andon has been rolling in it since the US government approved its product last year. The firm has received USD2.1 billion worth of orders from the US Army and the states of New York and Massachusetts since January. The vast majority of the funds has been paid, it said early today.

The hot-selling product represents a great change in fortune for Andon. Its earnings in the fourth quarter last year equated to five times the company’s entire revenue in the 14 years from 2007 to 2020. No outlook was given for its new market in Canada, but it will undoubtedly push up sales further.

Andon is expecting net profit to soar as much as 420 times in the first quarter from the same period last year to CNY16 billion (USD2.4 billion), according to the firm's performance forecast released earlier this month.

Editor: Kim Taylor