“We are just in time,” explains Milovan Stankov-Pugès, co-founder and CEO of NG Biotech, in front of the assembly lines.

"The directive is to increase production as much as possible until the end of February."

In the adjoining rooms, two machines and dozens of employees in white coats place thin diagnostic strips in plastic boxes made in Morbihan by a subcontractor.

Even the cardboard box is made locally in La Gacilly.

Located in the small town of Guipry-Messac (7,000 inhabitants), south of Rennes, NG Biotech went from around thirty employees before the pandemic to 220 in mid-January.

It still plans to hire about forty people before the end of the month.

“In February, we will produce 5 million tests per month, whereas we were at 500,000 per year before the pandemic. In two years, we will have multiplied production by 100”, specifies Mr. Stankov-Pugès.

The boss of NG Biotech Milovan Stankov-Pugès in front of his factory in Guipry-Messac, in Ille-et-Vilaine, January 13, 2022 Damien MEYER AFP

It was with his father, also called Milovan Stankov, that this young boss of barely 37 years old founded the company in 2012. Trained in immunology in Tito's Yugoslavia, Milovan senior settled in France in 1988 when his son, born in Barcelona, ​​was just four years old.

Capacity of 25 million tests per month

Already involved in the field of rapid diagnostics, Milovan senior initially devoted himself to the development of antibiotic resistance tests and pregnancy tests.

In early 2020, the company is preparing to market an innovative pregnancy self-test, using a drop of blood.

But with the arrival of the pandemic, this new product was immediately converted into a serological test for Covid-19, and presented to the press during the first confinement.

Then the epidemic waves follow one another and NG Biotech takes a new turn, with antigenic tests and self-tests.

Products that the company now claims to be one of the few to manufacture "entirely" in France.

For marketing and packaging, it has teamed up with Boiron laboratories, which have been seeking to diversify since the delisting of homeopathy.

Self-tests for Covid-19 produced in the NG Biotech factory in Guipry-Messac, Ille-et-Vilaine, January 13, 2022 Damien MEYER AFP

"Our know-how is the development and manufacture of strips", explains Mr. Stankov-Pugès.

These small pieces of paper of a few millimeters, where one or two red bands appear depending on the test result, indeed require unexpected expertise.

“Rapid tests are not equal to each other”, supports Arnaud Chalin, deputy director of research and development, who says he has tested more than 350 combinations of antibodies to allow the best possible detection.

"Antibodies are the heart of the test. If you select the wrong antibodies, the detection will be worse."

With this skill, NG Biotech claims to be able to quintuple its production in the medium term.

"We would be able to go to 25 million tests per month but we cannot do it alone, without a purchase guarantee," says the boss.

A new production unit would cost 15 to 20 million euros but "we need firm and irrevocable orders", he insists.

Enough to meet an ever-growing demand for self-tests, which has reached "300 to 400,000 self-tests reimbursed per day", at the start of 2022, according to Health Insurance.

In two years, the company's turnover has exploded, going from 3 million euros in 2019-2020 to more than 40 million in 2021-2022, of which 50% abroad, welcomes its CEO.

© 2022 AFP