Spain's PharmaMar receives CE approval for coronavirus diagnostic kits

Shares of Spanish drug outfit PharmaMar surged at the end of the week after clinching Brussels's stamp of approval for its coronavirus diagnostic kits.

The company's Genomica unit obtained the CE mark for the kits certifying that they meet high safety, health, and environmental protection requirements and are fit to be sold across the entire European Economic Area, which encompasses almost all the European Union plus Iceland and Norway.

"Our diagnostic kits have a high sensitivity and specificity to the coronaviru, allowing its detection even before patients start displaying symptoms and are compatible with the most commonly sued diagnostic technology used in hospitals and acre centres," the firm said in a regulatory statement.

It already has commercial agreements in place in 30 countries, including the People's Republic of China.

Genomica has two products that have successfully passed tests using clinical samples of the virus, Clart Covid-19, which can simulatenously analyse 96 samples in five hours, and qCovid-19 which is based on 'Real Time' technology.

Shares of Pharma were trading 14.19% higher to €4.53 as of 1625 GMT.