Japan’s Shionogi to Launch 25-Minute Coronavirus Test Next Month

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Japan’s Shionogi & Co. plans to introduce a 25-minute coronavirus test next month, according to a company statement.

The pharmaceutical developer and three Japanese universities signed a licensing pact in June aimed at mass-producing a test that would offer faster results than the current options, the company said in a statement Saturday.

Shionogi said it received a 37.3 billion yen ($352 million) subsidy from the Japanese government to help the company develop a coronavirus vaccine. The company plans to be able to produce more than 30 million doses of the treatment by the end of 2021, according to the statement.

Japan had a total of 45,757 virus cases as of Saturday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News.

Tokyo confirmed 462 new infections on Friday. The Tokyo government’s coronavirus panel said on Thursday that the city was at its highest alert level for the spread of infections.

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