“We are going to produce the components of the coronavirus detection kits, we are going to assemble the protection kits and we will also carry out the testing, so we have the complete cycle. In Europe, there are only two companies doing this and we are the third”, announced the general director of ALS Controlvet.

“We will not have the problems experienced in the past again, of scarcity or lack of product in which we have to buy at very high prices (…) In eight hours we will be able to produce eight thousand tests,” said João Cotta.

In case there is a need, he added, “we can multiply this over three shifts, which gives a daily capacity of 24,000 tests” and, in the case of a laboratory that belongs to a multinational “that is in 70 countries, there is obviously an automatic export market”.

“In the same way that during the pandemic we were more limited, because large companies diverted the components to more powerful countries, we will do the opposite. We will retain in Portugal what Portugal needs and the rest we will export”, he said.

The first kits start to be produced "in the second half of August," said João Cota, who explained that, after the various licensing stages have been passed, "and all is running smoothly, the goal is to be able to introduce them into the market in October".

The investment in the lab represents over €1 million.