China approves commercialization of its first mpox detection test

Chinese authorities today approved the commercialization of the country’s first domestically developed test for monkeypox, days after tightening border controls amid the disease’s international spread.

The Global Times, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, reported that the country’s National Medical Products Administration has approved the commercialization of a nucleic acid test developed by Daan Gene, a company based in the southern province of Guangdong.

The method tests skin lesions and samples taken from pharyngeal exudate, the newspaper clarifies, noting that other companies are also preparing tests for mpox and “other related products.”