Member Info for benbenbenben

It's not nice seeing a huge amount of value wiped off my holding, but I am still struggling to see how any of the fundamental reasons I invested in the first instance have changed.

Yes the test is coming to market later than anticipated, but the company have said Q4, and we are still in... Q4!

Pfizer's increasingly dodgy-looking press statements will not change the global demand for rapid, accurate, POC tests for years to come.

Then there's the cancer treatments...

"batch to batch variation" is one of the key issues with production of the mAB's on which Innova's test depends; Affimers are designed to overcome this issue, so should give us as advantage here...

From the Government press release on Monday, updated again yesterday with a list of boroughs receiving the 600,000 LFTs:

"Lateral flow devices do not require a laboratory to process the test. Swabbing and processing of these tests must currently be conducted at a dedicated testing site by trained personnel. The devices are designed to be intuitive and require minimal training to operate, and we are looking at how this test could be self-administered."

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/more-rapid-covid-19-tests-to-be-rolled-out-across-england#history

I don't think it's going to be announced on the livestream - Bell doesn't appear on the agenda. It'll be a document published somewhere I think

Thank you!

Bump^

Is the Gov Announcement, and does anyone have a link?

Thanks!

Kong1 - This article presents a body of evidence which clearly contradicts your argument that we have "missed the boat".

While it is frustrating that timelines have slipped from the end of summer, there is every reason to think we are very close to market.

Long-term holders should not be concerned by short term volatility in the share price.

But the greatest potential of strip tests is their capacity to stop the outbreak altogether. Testing large proportions of the population every few days would reduce the risk for everyone. Slovakia, which has used rapid tests to screen two-thirds of its 5.4m population on serial weekends may provide proof of concept that mass testing can work.

Whether or not a vaccine soon becomes available, it is easy to imagine how this could be a game changer. With Covid-19 controlled, millions of jobs would return and millions of students could return to school. Stadiums and theatres, churches and mosques, could reopen. Restaurants and pubs would be safe again. Emergency powers and intrusive surveillance apps would no longer be justified, and extended lockdowns a thing of the past.

We could reopen our societies — and keep them open."

!!

The best alternatives are lateral-flow, or rapid-antigen, tests, which work similarly to home pregnancy tests. They are cheap, easy to self-administer, give results in 15 minutes and do not require labs. The most pandemic-appropriate of these are paper-based tests, designed to turn positive when someone is contagious. Such “strip” tests could be deployed cheaply and at scale to allow frequent home testing.

Some oppose these tests on the grounds that they are less sensitive than PCR. But that misses the point. A test that is fast and can be used frequently is more useful than one that is highly sensitive. Reduced sensitivity is actually an advantage, returning positive results only in those with sufficiently high levels of virus that they are a risk to others. PCR tests can be positive for weeks.

At a minimum, rapid strip tests could be used to create Covid-19-free spaces through negative-test screening. In Germany, rapid tests are being used to permit safe visits to loved ones in care homes and hospitals. In the UK, Durham university is piloting self-administered swab rapid tests.

In the US, the performance of rapid tests on residential college campuses builds confidence. Mr Biden has said it will be a priority to scale up testing capacity “by many orders of magnitude” including with home tests and instant tests. In Madrid, where rapid tests have been used for several weeks, the case rate now seems to be falling faster than the rest of the country. Rapid antigen tests can also be readily adapted as new strains show up, such as has been seen in minks in Denmark.

Well worth reading -

https://www.ft.com/content/c527174f-497e-4c5e-904b-02a75db5ffc5

"The writer is assistant professor of population health science and policy at Icahn School for Medicine at Mount Sinai

In matters of clinical medicine, we value precision. But when it comes to public-health testing for coronavirus, less may turn out to be more.

As infections surge, European countries are in varying degrees of lockdown. On Saturday the US gained a new president-elect and counted a new daily record of 134,000 Covid-19 cases. Joe Biden has already named a Covid-19 task force who will work on getting the virus under control.

While it is encouraging to read about Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine, which has been found to be 90 per cent effective in a late-stage trial, there are no guarantees that it can stop the virus’s spread. We must also consider the logistical nightmare of distributing a vaccine that has to be kept at minus 80 degrees Celsius up to the point of injection, and requires two doses.

Short supplies (and a shortage of trust) which limit uptake mean it is unlikely to protect the entire global population. Nor do we know how long immunity lasts for people who have been infected. Putting all our eggs into a single biomedical basket works against us at a time when we need not only all tools, but all hands on deck.

We must continue to take other protective steps. Yet lockdowns and social distancing supplemented by masks are blunt instruments. A better way to proceed is to identify and isolate people who are contagious. Effective testing is essential to controlling an airborne virus that is spread rapidly and often silently by pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic people. 

Testing regimes have so far been inadequate. Covid-19 becomes contagious days before symptoms appear (if they do at all). But most people don’t seek a test until they feel ill — and many wait days after that. Some never bother and the asymptomatic slip through the net.

Even once tested, people often have to wait days more for a result. PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, the gold standard of diagnostic sensitivity, cannot provide results in real time. They require specialist medical staff to perform them and laboratory equipment to analyse them. They are also expensive. They may be ideal for DNA forensics and clinical diagnosis but are ill-suited to screen for a fast-spreading virus.

The Avacta tweets and Finncap briefing are well worth a look if you haven't already seen - https://twitter.com/avacta/status/1326130767198609408?s=20

(Avacta link to FinnCap in tweet)

Myles just posted too early - he's re-posted the same tweets as part of 16 tweet thread that was only 1/3 finished the first time.

Also got stopped out on IG ;(

Also down Sadiq but the fundamentals remain unchanged and the Government were very clear tonight that mass testing remains a strategic priority - we should see a rise tomorrow as result. In my view, worst case scenario here is that sales end up being underwhelming owing to delays - but even in that case, the company would still make transformation revenues and crucially, become profitable for the first time. This will unlock the long-term investment proposition here: the cancer treatments.

Obviously tough on days like today, but just re-read your research if you need reminding why it's worth keeping the faith when down!

Yes - there will be huge global market for rapid testing for years to come IMHO

The main thing for us isn’t the specific test being used in the L’pool *pilot* but the clear direction of travel being set by Gov. policy - we know they want a “sovereign supply”, AFAIK there is only one sovereign competitor, who hasn’t started their tech transfer yet...

What do you want them to say?

Both this board and the Twitter hashtag have become unreadable of late; Until the company give an update or we see concrete news from a third party there is literally nothing to discuss.

To those saying BAMS is irrelevant, I wouldn’t be so fast: there is no equivalent test on the market for the MS platform and on the existing installed infrastructure within hospitals it can a almost double capacity - while using saliva based samples.

1000+ tests a day, with one technician, on installed machines... it’s a huge asset!

"Manufactured by:
Xiamen Biotime Biotechnology Co., Ltd
Address: 3F/4F, No. 188, Pingcheng South Road, Haicang District, Xiamen, Fujian,
361026, P.R.China"

Some NI based outfit are acting as distributors - from the tests manual:

"The SARS CoV-2 Antigen Control Set (catalog number: 1339) is available to purchase
separately from Xiamen Biotime Biotechnology Co., Ltd as external controls"

https://cdn.website-editor.net/6f54caea7c6f4adfba8399428f3c0b0c/files/uploaded/Innova-SARS-Cov-2-Antigen-test-IFU.pdf