A Chinese-owned company that secured a nearly $2-billion contract with the U.S. government to supply COVID-19 self-test kits has sought to give its brand a further boost—by marketing at the Super Bowl.
From Feb. 5 to Feb. 12, iHealth Labs, a California-based subsidiary of Chinese medical device maker Andon Health, handed out 120,000 test kits to visitors at a pre-Super Bowl event at the LA Convention Center. On game night, it ran advertising featured on LED panels and in branded openings on the stadium’s video board during quarter-time breaks, according to the company.
With these kits—a bright orange box labeled with the fine print “made in China”—“fans can test themselves before gathering to watch the big game,” read a press release from the company on Monday.
The National Football League required attendees aged 5 years or older of the Super Bowl LVI, held at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium on Sunday, to present a vaccination card or show proof that they are virus-free, in the form of a negative PCR test within 48 hours of the game or a negative rapid antigen test from within 24 hours of the event.
Reliance on Chinese Kits
iHealth Labs has emerged as a major contract winner in the Biden administration’s push to distribute 1 billion free at-home test kits to Americans.
Over the last month, it has secured federal contracts worth $1.8 billion to supply 354 million of such kits, accounting for about a third of the total White House rollout. That is on top of the state orders it has received; The company on Monday said it is also working with 20 state governments and other organizations in an effort to “make at-home testing more accessible.”
The combined orders from the New York State Department of Health and the state of Massachusetts during December and January alone carry a value of at least $333 million, Andon’s filings have shown.
iHealth has now hired another 16,000 manufacturing hands and expanded its daily production capacity to over 10 million to meet the U.S. demands, the company said.
The Super Bowl advertising campaign is a sign that iHealth’s ambition doesn’t stop just there.
“Testing remains an important tool in the fight against COVID-19, but this country is facing a severe testing shortage,” Jack Feng, partner and chief operating officer at the lab, said in the press release. “Our company’s goal is to bring COVID-19 tests to every American family in a timely manner.”
What is left unsaid is iHealth’s ties with China that are now attracting increasing scrutiny among some GOP lawmakers.
By Eva Fu
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