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Thanks for the update Dave - facts are facts even if we do not like them.

I don’t really think they (DHSC) have the choice to do nothing. I have to believe that ODX will now have written formally to DHSC and asked for clarification, if an oversight a simple addendum letter re re institute the contract, for whatever it is worth or of course they could take the opportunity to revise it - which ODX could consider. If DHSC formally confirm that they have no intention of calling on ODX for tests - a very brave call - then they will have to address the machinery and they will not want to do that. I still have to hold on to the belief that HMG or DHSC do have a plan and that will include ODX otherwise why have they invested £20m in the project so far?

It is much easier for DHSC to extend the contract, costing them nothing, than deal with the fallout and ancillary paperwork of formally acknowledging that it is cancelled, when they do they will have to address the machinery and at the moment their options are very limited.

If I can bring myself to be even handed I have some, a little sympathy for CK. in his own words during the presentation they were a small food intolerance business dealing with third word countries (not a direct quote). He had spent his time encouraging his team on developing his small market then bosh Covid lands. He was immediately out of his depth but still managed to raise £11m at 40p in a placing entirely based on the Covid opportunity so he can’t feel too sorry for himself. Very few in situ CEO’s when faced with such an opportunity would have admitted even to themselves that they were struggling but it is obvious now, even to himself, that he was - that is down to the board but they were in the same boat and themselves either not aware of their responsibilities or themselves not up to the job, probably both. I am willing to bet they have all seen their pay packets swell, certainly CK but with increased reward comes increased expectations and they have failed to match up to the task. HMG are a mess, the contract and what came with it were entirely good but the poor PR and what now transpires to have been over ambitious, Ill thought through tweets added fuel to the justified expectations of the shareholder, invested only because of Covid and anticipating great things. During the presentation CK and his new mate showed a total lack of understanding of the market, they were trying to bolster the food intolerance guys who probably have been working hard and feel overlooked - I would have dealt with them by a separate meeting to thank them and handed out a few pay rises and bonuses- job done but they felt it necessary to dwell on this small business believing it would somehow appease their investors - they were very wrong. If the new guy wants the top job then he is well placed to make a difference but he will need to work hard and show us his value otherwise there are many others that could do a better job. The board need to step up and address the leadership, provide help and guidance, call on contacts, seek professional advice to give the company every chance to maximise the opportunity that exists now - it is not too late but there is no time to waste.

As it turns out all anyone had to do was wait for ODX to speak for themselves and they would do the damage without outside help. What on earth were they doing when they were tweeting busy busy busy - I certainly have no idea.

ODX have chosen to retain the £2.5m (I think) in the balance sheet. If I remember correctly this money was only repayable by offset against future government orders that is HMG handed the money over in advance and expected us to offset it against their future invoices as orders landed - perfectly normal and entirely good. Again my recollection is that ODX having expended the money during set up would not be required to repay the money if orders did not land. Once they were advised by their legal team that the contract had lapsed they could have chosen to put that money into the p/l account as income and presented a better trading figure although they have not done so yet they will probably do this at year end.

I always read your posts carefully TWatcher as whatever else you are well researched but I am struggling a little to get your point. I don’t think you are suggesting that with this single new variant LFT’s are now worthless but you might be suggesting that some are more worthy than others in which case who is to say that the Chinese test are now even less effective than our own home grown test and what we actually have now is a major opportunity. I do not actually believe this to be the case and have to wait for the powers than be to give us more information but it is of course possible.

No I can’t remember but as HMG paid for us to increase capacity to 100m per annum I don’t see how it matters and until we receive approvals and orders whatever capacity we have remains unused. What am I missing?

No doubt that I was certainly amongst those that believed no business would simply pay for staff to sit around but it would certainly appear that we did. As a positive the contract allowed us to build capacity and HMG paid for us to do it - should we have managed it better, certainly but overall increasing capacity on someone else’s dime is a major positive.

Good post, useful, thanks Aldebaran.

Okehurst, we do not yet know that the day 2 LFT has or will be scrapped, I have posted on another thread why I do not believe this will happen. Although technically correct on legal advise it would appear that the government contract has been allowed to lapse, whatever it is actually worth it could easily be reinstated, renewed or revised and as I am in bed this weekend and have far to much time on my hands I was actively posting yesterday my views on the contract and that despite the fact we have received no orders having it was an almost entirely good thing. What we have to fully accept is that the keystone to any progress is only through achieving approvals. We know we have the capacity to produce tests which is important but until we actually have approvals nothing else matters. We believe we are close, NCYT have just been given one so hopefully our first one (I am grateful that we are CE marked and although absolutely necessary it is not the key) will arrive shortly allowing us to maximise the Dam contract but it is HUA that is the game changer as we have learnt everything else is just froth.

But of course lab based PFC testing will simply not be able to cope with the demand from the millions of passengers flying every day - surely no one has forgotten the chaos the last time - whilst the airways remain open LFT have to be the main test - followed up by a PCR test if positive as I believe was the case before Omicron but perhaps you will be required to self isolate until you test negative. As I understand it and accepting I am no scientist LFT (including our own)work by detecting the spike protein which is common to all variants - they do not identify which variant, I am sure that if I am wrong I can rely on those in the field to correct me.

Arr sorry Flashy, I may have overreacted - not sure what you actually meant but I apologise for getting the hump.

Well Flashy I can agree that Twitter is a nightmare, please put you money where your mouth is and pursue a legal challenge.. I will disregard your insult and simply ignore you in future you should certainly do the same with me.

Yes because the contact evidently make it incumbent on the DHSC to issue extension notices which they have failed to do. I maintain an oversight but a contract term is a contract term and once a lawyer advises you that technically this means the contract had lapsed his hand was forced. You or I may have handled things differently but what has he done wrong, legally?

Sneaky I seriously doubt there is anymore to it than meets the eye. Of course I don’t know but I can easily believe we may have potentially received an initial extension then people moved around within the DHSC and it simply got overlooked. When asked officially everyone looked around and realised there was no procedure in place to issue an extension and nobody was prepared to raise it with senior staff so that just reported back saying we know nothing about extending the contract and it is above my pay grade to confirm that we will be making an order. At best ODX could have thought that this is a great opportunity to ditch the open ended commitment and pursue commercial contracts that they believed would be forthcoming when approvals landed or they could simply have felt that after asking they had no choice to report it and didn’t realise that it would cause the SP to dive - take you pick.

That leaves him in a position to put the train back on the rails and we can all cheer.

Sorry Flashy what’s your point, you intend to pursue legal action again all of them? That is splendid let us know how you get on.

So to be clear because DHSC were not able to confirm, when requested an extension the legal advise was that ODX should consider the contract as lapsed and this is what ODX reported in the RNS causing the SP to drop to 26p after a little help from a poor presentation - great. So nothing has actually changed from where we have been for months and DHSC had not ever suggested that the contract has lapsed they were just not in a position to provide the paperwork that the lawyers had suggested should, in a perfect world, be held on file.

No of course not, are you?