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Braveheart Investment Group PLC - AIM-listed investment company with six strategic investments - Provides update on Paraytec Ltd and University of Sheffield's progress in developing Covid-19 test. Says testing first 500 samples from Sheffield Hospitals Trust a "key focus" for Paraytec team in last month, with average time to acquire test result a "market-leading value" at less than 120 seconds. Notes clinical pipeline now "fully functional".
Braveheart owns 100% of Paraytec, which has adopted an additional comparator test development by the university to verify the presence of intact virus particles, which makes it different from other tests for viral RNS levels. These other tests are more likely to cause a patient to test positive when no longer infectious.
Additionally, Paraytec is using isolated lab-grown virus to improve sensitivity of its instrument for detecting pre-symptomatic and early-stage symptomatic virus levels. It expects to confirms a lower limit of detection of 1,000 virons per millilitre of sample, another market-leading value.
The high speed and high sensitivity might allow for multiplexed "matrix" testing, combining samples from multiple people for simultaneous analysis. For example, 20 parallel tests would yield individual results for as many as a hundred people. This kind of test would be useful for large events.
Paraytec now progressing to prospective clinical validation with a larger number of patient samples and will seek a CE mark for its test. This trail is expected to take two months.
Current stock price: 71.90 pence; down 28% on Monday
Year-to-date change: up sharply from 28p on December 31
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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