(Alliance News) - Shares in Avacta Group PLC plunged on Monday after halting the sales of its AffiDX antigen test due to its lower sensitivity to detecting the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
Shares in the cancer-focused immunotherapies developer were 24% lower at 88.468 pence on Monday morning in London.
In mid-December, Leeds, England-based Avacta announced that its AffiDX test was able to detect Omicron following testing in a small clinical study.
However, further laboratory analysis has shown that the test may be effective at detecting high viral loads, the test's sensitivity is reduced at lower viral loads, compared to its performance with previous Covid-19 variants.
Avacta said that the cause for the lower sensitivity of the test is the antibody with which the company Affimer is paired. As a result, Avacta has paused sales of the antigen test as it works to replace the antibody in the product to improve its performance.
"As a responsible business, we set very high standards for ourselves and our products and have continually kept the performance of the AffiDX antigen test under review as new SARS-CoV-2 variants have arisen. Our determination to only provide high quality, high performance diagnostic tests has led us to the correct decision to pause all marketing of the AffiDX lateral flow antigen test. We have, of course, been unable to market the product in the UK since October 2021, as the product continues to await approval under the new CTDA regulatory process," said Chief Executive Alastair Smith.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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Avacta Group (AVCT)