GENOMICA, a wholly owned company of PharmaMar Group, is developing a kit to reliably detect and identify the new virus known as "Wuhan pneumonia" (coronavirus 2019-nCoV).

The kit being developed by GENOMICA will be commercially available in the next 5-7 weeks, and will have the capacity to simultaneously analyze 96 patient samples in less than 5 hours.

With extensive experience in the detection of respiratory pathogens, the Company is currently marketing a diagnostic kit for the detection of 20 different viruses associated with respiratory diseases, including the three most frequently detected coronaviruses in humans (HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-NL63). Coronaviruses are an extended family of viruses that can cause the common cold, but also serious diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

GENOMICA opened its subsidiary in Wuhan, China, in January 2018, becoming the first Spanish company to manufacture in vitro molecular diagnostic kits, with a subsidiary in China. At the end of 2019, the Company delivered to its Chinese partner, HuaSin Science, the first automatic, molecular diagnostic kits, based on GENOMICA's CLART® technology, for the analysis of human papillomavirus, and which could be used for the diagnosis of this coronavirus, with the new kit being developed by GENOMICA.

On December 31st, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) learned of several cases of severe pneumonia in the Chinese city of Wuhan (Hubei province) due to an unknown virus. On January 7th, 2020, the Chinese authorities identified it as belonging to the family of coronaviruses (2019-nCoV).

The number of confirmed cases of "Wuhan pneumonia" (2019-nCoV) infections since December 31stare increasing dramatically daily. Cases have been confirmed in several countries in Asia (China, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Republic of Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and United Arab Emirates, Europe (France and Germany), the Americas (USA and Canada) and Oceania (Australia).

Due to this global health emergency, reliable diagnostic tools are needed for a rapid response to provide appropriate treatment to patients and to prevent transmission to other citizens.