By Patricia Weiss
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German genetic testing specialist Qiagen is seeing demand for its COVID-19 tests firming up again, leading it to believe that sagging demand in July was only temporary.
Qiagen, whose shareholders a year ago rebuffed a takeover bid by life science tools maker Thermo Fisher, said in July that faster-than-expected uptake of vaccination campaigns weighed on demand for its diagnostics kits, prompting it to cut its full-year guidance.
In an interview with Reuters, finance chief Roland Sackers said demand for tests had taken yet another turn as continued breakthrough infections from the Delta coronavirus variant in some vaccinated people was fuelling test kit demand.
“We are now at a turning point where we realise that a one-off boost is turning into normal business. COVID is becoming an infectious disease that stays with us. Therefore the tests will stay,” Sackers said.
(Reporting by Patricia Weiss; Writing by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Tom Sims)
