(Yicai Global) Jan. 7 -- Shares of Andon Health jumped today after the US Food and Drug Administration said the Chinese healthcare tech brand’s US unit’s Covid-19 test kit can effectively detect the Omicron variant.

Andon’s stock [SHE: 002432] was trading 9.5 percent up at CNY52.26 (USD8.20) as of today’s lunch break. The shares have skyrocketed almost 767 percent since last November when the FDA approved the firm’s at-home Covid-19 detection kit for emergency use.

iHealth Labs’ at-home over-the-counter coronavirus antigen diagnostic kit can successfully detect the mutated Omicron string, which surfaced in South Africa in mid-November, the Tianjin-based parent said in a statement yesterday, citing the results of a study called ‘Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics’ jointly carried out by the FDA and the US National Institutes of Health.

The RADx test uses patient samples containing live virus and reviews the kits' ability to detect Omicron, which represents the best way to evaluate true test performance in the short term. Clinical trial data is still necessary for further verification of these products' detection ability, the FDA said in the bulletin.

The FDA will continue to authorize the product’s use, it noted, adding that “antigens tests are generally less sensitive and less likely to pick up very early infections compared to the molecular ones.”

Editor: Futura Costaglione