DHSC Antigen LFT manufacture panic button activated pt110 May 2021 12:26
https://bidstats.uk/tenders/2021/W18/750256532
Supply of Product and Manufacturing Engineers for UK Lateral Flow Team (LFT) Upscale Project Accelerator Team
A Contract Award Notice by DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Plant engineering design services
supplier:
Toyota Derby
1. The COVID-19 outbreak is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern as declared by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020.
The WHO Director General characterised COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
2. A key element of ensuring an effective response to the pandemic is ensuring that there is adequate testing.
Therefore, ensuring surge LFT capacity, including sufficient availability of Lateral Flow Tests, is critical.
3. Mass testing of the UK Population is a key step in bringing the Pandemic under control.
(Lateral Flow Tests produce quicker results than the current PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test, and do not require a lab processing step.)
LFT tests have only recently become viable as a means of testing, with multiple tests being progressed through to certification and approval.
This was unforeseen by the DHSC and outside its control.
4. DHSC's market analysis data demonstrates that the global market for LFT is volatile and highly competitive.
Global manufacturing capability is limited to circa 120m units per day. Demand often outstrips supply.
DHSC requirement is driven by the progress of the pandemic (including emerging variants),
the changing efficacy of available LTF products and the severity of the second wave/national R-number.
That requirement means that the UK must make substantial purchases of tests during a short manufacturing window.
5. DHSC has been tasked with ensuring security of supply of a critical consumable asset (Lateral Flow Antigen tests) in a volatile and competitive global market place.
This contract pursues that mandate by providing critical support to LFT manufacturers to scale up their production to meet the quantities mandated by the UK government for the programme.
6. A market engagement exercise for DHSC was carried out at pace due to the urgent requirement and, through this engagement the Supplier was identified as being able to offer a directly relevant package of support to the selected manufacturers.
The surge LFT capacity was identified as strictly necessary to meet the demand to scale up the testing programme in the UK
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From 23.04.2021 RNS:
"PathFlow® SARS-CoV-2 Antigen is a professional and home use LFT for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antigens using non-invasive anterior nasal swab samples to provide a result in approximately 15 minutes. Novacyt has been working with a partner to develop this test, which is able to detect the virus regardless of current known mutations. The Company intends to launch the test as CE-IVD before the end of Q2 2021 and expects it to complement Novacyt's established position in COVID-19 PCR testing. "
"Directors believe this product could ad
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