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(Alliance News) - NetScientific PLC on Monday announced its wholly owned subsidiary ProAxsis Ltd inked a contract with AstraZeneca PLC for its serology test.
NetScientific shares surged 36% at 102.00 pence each in London on Monday morning.
NetScientific is a Buckinghamshire-based life sciences and technology investment and commercialisation company, while subsidiary ProAxsis is a Belfast-based respiratory diagnostics company.
ProAxsis said it has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with AstraZeneca which will see it take responsibility for completing the validation and global commercialisation of a SARS-CoV-2 serology ELISA developed by an internal research team at AstraZeneca.
ELISA refers to an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
"We're excited to be involved with this assay to support such a key area of global healthcare need. The research team at AstraZeneca have already completed significant optimisation and validation work, which has demonstrated the assay's high potential sensitivity and specificity of detecting SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. ProAxsis will extend this work to support the identification of people who have raised antibodies against this challenging virus," said ProAxsis Chief Executive David Ribeiro said.
In return for providing access to the required intellectual property and technical know-how, AstraZeneca will receive a royalty fee on future global net sales of the assay.
By Greg Roxburgh; gregroxburgh@alliancenews.com
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