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They've already designated a new variant in south America, b1.6. Inevitable considering the number of immunosuppressed individuals in the population it's mostly spreading in.
https://twitter.com/denise_dewald/status/1565537664350175233
A *NEW* monkeypox strain in the UK
Expecting RNS soon .Now mid August . NCYT time to release RNS .
Following on from Mandy's reply, and revisiting the response to investor questions at Investor Meet 28.04.2022:
Q7 Has your bio surveillance activity highlighted anything in the last two years beyond Covid 19, which might highlight a future outbreak.
A7 "The surveillance capability we have is largely deployed to ensure our Covid portfolio is current and relevant for all variants of concern. Since day one our follow up with the ORF1ab targets and other targets chosen by that team remain relevant for all variants of concern including Omicron. From a specific Bio-Surveillance point of view, that is the strength of this company and we’ve got a great design team. They are also freshening up the Primers and Probes for the multi-pathogens we can cover in the research use portfolio to ensure they are current and relevant, but I guess the broader question being asked is around general surveillance for outbreaks. What we are going to be doing is putting together in a systematic way, a method of scanning through internet based algorithms, media, social media, also scanning for third parties who focus on this, they are large organisations around the world who do this very work so that we are on the front foot of hearing about outbreaks and issues. Whether we respond to them all is a matter of judgement and we will install a Cobra like taskforce mentality, in that if something is significant and we need to move quickly, we will have the internal wherewithal to consider those as the company proudly has done with Covid. I don’t pray for another major outbreak, but it certainly will happen. At some point there will be other viral disease outbreaks etc, and we will be responsive, so yes we are enhancing it and yes we continue with the rigorous Bio-surveillance of our existing portfolio."
+++
Viva the Cobra taskforce clone, which must be well advanced by now.
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Those companies not operating a Bio surveillance capability will be significantly disadvantaged,
essentially they are flying blind.
It's almost enough to make them consider buying the company..
Well that's the ring vaccination strategy up the swanny. What should use against MPX now, harsh language?
BBC News - Monkeypox: Lack of vaccines sparks pause in UK rollout
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62551821
Dear Mandy - 15.08.2022
"Can you please verify that Primerdesign is prepared to update any of it's PCR assays, as a result of continuous genetic sequence monitoring, and not just the Monkeypox assay?
Many thanks for your assistance."
Response - 15.08.2022
"Novacyt, through its specialist bioinformatics surveillance expertise, continually tracks the changing pathology of diseases worldwide, and will regularly review the detection profile of assays, ensuring that new versions are developed if necessary."
Kind regards,
Mandy Cowling
Corporate and Investor Relations Manager
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That's what automating the Bioinformatics process buys you I think!
Huey, from the strategy RNS:
Lab21 Healthcare and Microgen Bioproducts
As communicated in January 2022, the Company commenced a strategic review of its Lab21 Healthcare and Microgen Bioproducts businesses, which has now concluded. As outlined in the review, the costs associated with updating the existing portfolios in these businesses to comply with IVDR and ISO regulations are prohibitive versus the sales opportunity it presents.
Therefore, Novacyt is proposing to discontinue both businesses, which will be treated as discontinued under IFRS 5 for 2022 accounting. The estimated sales impact of this decision is circa £2.9m in 2022, with a gross margin reduction of £1.45m, which is expected to be fully offset by cost savings. A cash restructuring charge of circa £0.5m is expected, however, this should be fully financed from in-year savings and the release of working capital to make the closure of the businesses cash neutral in 2022.
From trading update RNS:
As announced at the time of the full year 2021 results, following a strategic review, Novacyt is discontinuing its Lab21 Healthcare and Microgen Bioproducts businesses. Following a further review based on the faster than expected decline in COVID-19 revenue, the Company is taking steps to further rationalise its cost base, targeting an additional reduction in operating costs of £2.4m this year and a one-off cash restructuring charge of circa £0.8m.
I don't think you can claim the redundancies as your predictions when they've be telling us since April.
We've gone from £300m revenues to £25m so unfortunately redundancies had to happen. It may not be great for the employees but the restructuring is essential for ncyt. We build from a new baseline.
Huey , 14 reviews on glassdoor over 250 staff , 50 % of the reviews positive , you post your hypothesis as though fact and omit IMO. Not correct re Microgen, In merging the two lots of duplicated roles and in this case the 'winner takes it all' if duplication , inevitable comparisons will occur and some staff will be offered redundancies.
Novacyt are retiring the Microgen brand that's all, no job losses from that. Going forward anything that was a Microgen product will be a Novacyt product, made by the same people in the same labs and offices. And lab and office space is at a premium at Novacyt as the reviews and replies on glassdoor highlight
Redundancies are as usual back office, admin staff now and I predict some middle/senior management later. Standard stuff
Redundancies were never a foregone conclusion, they came about because of BoD disfunction, I highlighted this disfunction first with the terrible new website and continued with every botched thing they did regarding product launches, ads, RNS's since then
Reviews and replies on glassdoor show that this disfunction has existed for sometime so the covid scaling up or down is an irrelevant excuse, many other companies are having the same experience, the reason for the redundancies is a dysfunctional BoD.
Nobody needed to predict redundancies, the upscaling to facilitate covid testing was huge. Furthermore the company told us they were closing Microgen and streamlining. It is a fact
that they will have kept some Microgen staff , several were moved to posts within Novacyt months ago and they will ask for voluntary redundancies and then additionally first in first out or in some instances those they don't think are performing as expected. I am not for one moment saying this gentlemen fits into the latter category. I guess staff were hard to acquire during the pandemic and people sought permanent roles , Novacyt would have been better served in certain sectors within the company paying higher wages and contracting staff. Imo
Come on work it Baby…….spread that doubt…….spread that fear
Ahh here it is…….. Babypuey’s late night / early hours of the morning post……..the one it wants you to see first thing in the morning………just like Porky9 used to work it……..so obvious it’s sad…….keep trying
Meanwhile those redundancies I predicted a while back have sadly and unfortunately started, hope the affected staff find new roles soon and hope this is a wake up call for the BoD.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6964111381616807936/
Very true, the business decisions taken regarding r&d and this info is critical to sales and so to the health of the business. Novacyt decided to only r&d covid for a few years so now they need to get their other products updated and yes they will use sequenced data from other orgs to do that I imagine. Incidentally there are other sources available, eg workflow processes get posted to github (looking forward to getting educated on why github is &$%@#). This work is very similar to software dev.
ASAP is also important, mainly as there will always be others competing, bearing in mind Nova is tiny compared to the medium to big players who have more resources and money (and customers)
The flu test/vaccine is determined by Australia, whatever strain they get we get 6 months later.
This profile explains how normal and common and straightforward all this stuff is, Novacyt is in noway special on these subjects, people are getting excited over the everyday tools of this sector.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemma-stokes/?originalSubdomain=uk
"Curating sequence data and mine public databases for sequence content periodically"
Novacyt employees (and everyone else) uses the data held on the GISAID database, that many countries freely contribute to.
It is what individual companies do with that data that is the point.
Novacyt acts when a test no longer is capable as being as accurate as possible, because the data collected proves that Novacyt's test needs an update.
That is why the flu test changes every year, and why Winterplex, which includes flu A+B, is updated yearly, guided by the data on the database.
So when improvements are due Novact produces an improved test.
Those test manufacturers without a Genomic Sequencing facility are nor among those who customers deal with, who want test updates available ASAP.
Hmmm to quote the company here
Industry-leading Bio-informatics platform
• Applied to COVID, COVID-plus and post-COVID
portfolio
• Automated platform analyzes >2m genetic sequences per week
• Machine learning approach identifies best diagnostic targets and best assay design
• Key competitive advantage vs. IVD peers
• Generates novel, innovative assays and underpins our broad patent portfolio
Also
10 new products planned by end 2022
Source
https://novacyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Novacyt-2021-Investors-Webcast-Final-11.08.21.pdf
Seems they have been planning ahead or you can always believe glassdoor championed by our number one negative poster, it's your money make your choices.
We are the only company using Genomic sequencing to develop a better test for a shifting set of goal posts.
No. sequencing happens all over the world on monkeypox, covid or whatever virus and any new changes/mutations are made available centrally and free online, Novacyt employees (and everyone else) use's when designing new products
No, a decision to release a new version is business not scientific, it's not necessary to update an assay to include a mutation unless the mutation is one that is of concern and an update is requested by customers. Who cares about mutations that don't change anything or don't spread, science might have an interest in a harmless mutation but not customers, hence business calls the shots
It is every companys focus is staying competitive otherwise they go broke. Nova has not stayed competitive, they focused 100% on covid for a couple of years and didn't keep the rest of their portfolio up to date, so now they are relaunching the portfolio and playing catchup with the market. Nova does not have a competitive edge anywhere at the moment tbh.
Bioinfomatics is database design and admin, lost on that bit
I admire your enthusiasm though.
Time to monetise our world class bioinformatics assets.
We are the only company using Genomic sequencing to develop a better test for a shifting set of goal posts.
When sequencers say it's time for a test that more completely meets the need, due to new variants appearing,
then and only then do we produce an improved product.
As Kaeren said, it's automated, I didn't realise it was automated for many of our assays.
The use of Genomic sequencing in this regard by Novacyt is unique, and is an excellent selling point for customers who want the most up to date assay for specific virus variants.
They don't have a nasty shock when they realise they have been using a test that is gradually going out of date.
That is the nature of our competitive edge.
There's no competitive edge to releasing new versions of tests, everyone has to do it otherwise your customers would switch to a more recent test from a competitor. Same reason Microsoft automatically install updates and patches on your pc.
Pity they didn't launch the new freeze dried assay using this test, think the market would have reacted better.
Hi kaeren just pointing out your referring to the bioinformatics which is now fully automated
RNS 28.07.2022 - Adenovirus F41 - "Novacyt, through its specialist bioinformatics surveillance expertise, continually tracks the changing pathology of diseases worldwide, and will regularly review the detection profile of assays, ensuring that new versions are developed if necessary."
RNS 30.10.2021 - Winterplex - "As the Northern hemisphere approaches the 2021-2022 flu season, Novacyt has carried out an analysis of recent influenza genome sequences using its specialist bioinformatics surveillance expertise to determine how significant the genetic drift was in the virus from the previous year. "
Seems like these two passages indicate genome sequencing on many NCYT assay's, not just Monkeypox and a few others.
Fully automated , achieved last year I believe , perhaps early this year . So should be fast.
All assays?
The bioinformatic guys and gals are going to be busy then.