Wenzhou businessman wins world's first self-testing nucleic acid CE certificate

Ustar Biotechnologies (Hangzhou) Ltd, a medical devices enterprise run by Wenzhou businessman You Qimin recently won a CE certificate from the European Union for in vitro diagnostic medical devices.

The device, which allows people to do COVID-19 nucleic acid tests on their own at their homes, was independently developed by the company and was the first of its kind in the world to gain the CE certificate.

The test kit is small and easy to operate, and the test results can be quickly read. It is able to test for COVID-19 variants such as Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron.

People can buy the test kit at supermarkets or pharmacies.

Born in 1954 in Pingyang county, Wenzhou, You Qimin quit primary school to work as an oil producer in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province. He studied in his spare time and was admitted to an American university, where he went on to obtain a doctoral degree.

You returned to China in 2005 and founded Ustar Biotechnologies (Hangzhou) Ltd. He spent over 200 million yuan ($29.76 million) on scientific research, focusing on the R&D, production and sale of innovative point-of-care molecular diagnostics technology and products and aiming to improve the molecular diagnostic capacity of major infectious diseases such as COVID-19, tuberculosis, and malaria.