Hong Seng’s HS Bio goes big-time into healthcare

HS Bio Sdn Bhd (“HS Bio”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Seng Consolidated Berhad (“Hong Seng” or “Group”) (Stock Code: 0041) has recently announced its intention to acquire a 51% stake in RZAC Immunesafe Sdn Bhd (“RZAC”). This reinforces the Group’s commitment for continuous growth as a serious healthcare force for good in the ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a report by Fitch Solutions Macro Research, the Malaysian healthcare market is expected to grow by 127% to RM127.9bil by 2027 from RM56.3 billion in 2017, fueled by increasing demand for healthcare services from an ageing population, rising affluence, and increasing life expectancy.

With this proposed acquisition, HS Bio will further expand its dominance in the lucractive healthcare industry with the inclusion of RZAC’s neutralising antibody testing capabilities to the considerable service verticals under Hong Seng.

RZAC has the exclusive rights to the distribution of ImmuSAFE™ COVID+, the world’s first comprehensive lab-based biochip neutralising antibody test for COVID-19 and has secured orders and commitments from a multitude of government agencies and private companies, including vaccine producers.

Therefore, HS Bio has expressed interest in RZAC as this is believed to be the next generation of the COVID fight synergistic with the Group’s subsidiary, Neogenix Laboratoire Sdn. Bhd (“Neogenix Lab”) and its capabilities in molecular diagnostic tests, oncological tests, Research & Development and precision medicine.

A Complete Ecosystem For COVID-19 Services

With the proposed 51% acquisition of RZAC, Hong Seng has completed the final piece of the puzzle in the completion of a comprehensive and fully integrated ecosystem able to process the entire value chain for Covid-19 testing. HS Bio is involved in the entire supply chain of the Covid-19 testing process, from front-facing and back-end process of its digital healthcare platform, medical laboratory and research & development services, as well as the medical & healthcare supplies.

This puts Hong Seng in a good position as the involvement in the entire supply chain of the Covid-19 testing process enables the Group to have access and visibility of the development, whether it is on the demand for testing, the capacity at the laboratory, inventory of the testing kit or the logistic issues involving the delivery of sample tests. The holistic approach and integrated Covid-19 testing supply chain enables effective coordination and communication that allows the Group to increase its testing capabilities in anticipation of the scaling up of Covid-19 testing.

Currently, HS Bio is the only integrated supply chain healthcare provider that has an entire ecosystem for Covid-19 services. This could help to enable an effective national Covid-19 testing strategy for Malaysia. The digital healthcare platform such as Jengu and eMedAsia ensures easy and seamless access to any COVID tests and other health tests. End users or the public can easily book and make payments for the tests via its digital healthcare platform.

Upon a booking made via these platforms, the back-end process will tap on the e-commerce marketplace under eMedAsia, that has a collaboration with over 2,200 clinics nationwide. The booking process will be effortless given the efficient back-end system that enables appointment data to be made with the nearest clinics. The bio-samples collected will be delivered to the nearest labs within 24 hours through the MediBox service provided by the Group’s logistic partner and specialist, Line Clear Express Logistics Sdn Bhd.

Once the test results are available, Jengu will work together with eMedAsia to facilitate the delivery of the test results to end-users via its in-house QR Code verification technology, QRLab, acknowledged by and affiliated with Affinidi and GovTech Singapore.

This strategy is one with significant upside to shareholders, benefiting from a breadth of high growth opportunities in a traditionally defensive industry. Given that Covid-19 testing will remain as a key component for the reopening of the community, economy, businesses and international borders, the acquisition of RZAC will likely be earnings accretive for Hong Seng. Unlike some more cyclical industries which can suffer from oversupply, the Group is well-positioned for this fast-changing marketplace where this pandemic may evolve into an endemic.

ImmuSAFE™ COVID +, the Recommended Comprehensive Antibody Test by IMR To Test The Effectiveness Of Your Vaccination

ImmuSAFE™ COVID+ Biochip comprehensive neutralising antibody assay tests as recommended by Malaysia’s Institute for Medical Research (“IMR”) is a test that assesses a person’s level of neutralising antibodies. These neutralising antibodies are essential in generating an effective protective immunity, for which only the presence of neutralising antibodies is an indication that the body is capable of preventing the virus from entering its cells.

The detection of neutralising antibodies and the quantity on whether it meets a certain threshold is the only recommended and comprehensive neutralising antibody testing.

Most commercial antibody tests are not robust enough and can only provide positive results, which indicate an immune response has occurred. A simple result of “Yes” or “No” to an occurrence of immune response is not sufficient to evaluate immunity or protection from the SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Meanwhile, ImmuSAFE™ COVID+ biochip detects the actual neutralising antibody levels (both qualitative and quantitative). It is the world’s first lab-based biochip test for COVID-19 that enables highly quantitative determination of both the level and target location of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in an individual.

The Key Advantages of ImmuSAFE™ COVID+

1. ImmuSAFE™ is the world’s first multi-antigen, epitope specific, fully quantitative test kit.

2. ImmuSAFE™ test has an accuracy of 100% as validated by IMR.

3. ImmuSAFE™ test can identify and measure the presence of neutralising antibodies with high accuracy and is able to quantify the levels of antibodies.

4. ImmuSAFE™ test can also determine which epitopes the neutralising antibodies bind to.

5. ImmuSAFE™ test has a sensitivity of 100% compared with single-antigen antibody tests.

6. ImmuSAFE™ test is able to quantify the value of the antibodies presence providing complete detail of the person’s or the community’s vaccine efficacy as compared to other rapid antibody tests which provide only a polar qualitative answer such as a “Yes” or “No” that which does not mean anything essentially.

Recommended and validated by the IMR, the ImmuSAFE™ COVID+ Biochip Test Kit is authorised by Medical Device Authority (MDA 600-3/1/12-46-11)

For more information or list of available clinics for ImmuSAFE™ COVID+ Biochip Test booking, please WhatsApp 012-923 0781 or email sales@aster.my or visit http://rzacimmunesafe.my