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a test that would take just one hour. E25Bio, a Massachusetts-based biotech company, which creates rapid diagnostic tests for diseases like Zika and Dengue, raised $2m from Khosla Ventures to develop a speedy Covid-19 test.
Scientists from the University of Oxford’s Science Engineering department have also developed a rapid test that can give a result in half an hour, and have validated the system with clinical samples at a Shenzhen hospital. An Irish startup, Assay Genie, is also developing a test that could detect the Covid-19 virus from a single drop of blood in 15 minutes.
Antibody testing
In addition to being able to more quickly test if someone currently has the virus, it will become increasingly important to test for antibodies that would show if someone has had the disease.
Those people, who would be likely to have immunity from the disease, would be able to resume working and contact with vulnerable people. The sooner this kind of test can be brought on a mass scale, the sooner lockdowns can end and the economy can begin to recover.

Laboratory methods for diagnosing Covid-19 follow one of two methods — either detecting the virus itself, usually from a nose or throat swab, or detecting the antibodies that our bodies have developed to fight it. Antibodies typically develop around 7 days after the infection (see below) but last in the body a long time, so that a previous Covid-19 infection should be detectable weeks or months later.
Singapore was the first to use an antibody test, developed by researchers at the Duke-NUS Medical school, in February but now several companies are working to provide simple test kits using this method.
BioPanda Diagnostics, based in Belfast, was reported by Wired to be in talks with the UK government to supply a simple blood test that could test for Covid-19 antibodies in 10 minutes. The test kit, shown on the company’s website, looks as simple as a pregnancy test, a plastic case with blue lines appearing in a little window for a positive result.
BioPanda is a seed-stage company, launched in 2011, which, according to Dealroom, has just 4 employees, so it remains to be seen if the company could produce these tests on any mass scale.
AlphaBioLabs, a Drug. alcohol and DNA-testing company based in Warrington in the UK, says it is bringing out a £125 fingerprick test to show in 15 minutes if someone has developed antibodies against Covid-19. The test, initially available only to businesses, will be available by the end of March, the company said.
Beware the snake oil
Chris Whitty, the UK’s chief medical officer, told a press conference on Thursday that the UK government is currently in talks with several companies about antibody tests but warned that “We are not yet sure whether the {tests] currently on the market are the right ones”.

As of March 13th, we have received some 3.5m orders for our Covid-19 test kits. That represents about 8 months of sales, so that gives you some idea for what this has done to the company,” says Paul Eros, business development director at Novacyt.
The Anglo-French molecular testing company’s Primerdesign subsidiary was one of the first to develop a lab test for detecting the virus, has found itself inundated with orders from 60 countries so far, one of the biggest of which was a recent £1m order for tests from Public Health England.
“This is a significant opportunity for Novacyt to show what it can do.”

Eros — who has been up since 5 this morning fielding calls — struggles to count just how many employees the company now has. It is changing fast. In normal times it was around 115, but Novacyt has had to expand its own production facilities and sign a deal with an outsourcing partner to handle the demand — and it is currently hiring more staff for its Southampton facility.
The company is no stranger to disease outbreaks. Its researchers were quick off the mark to develop tests for previous epidemics, such as SARS, swine flu and Ebola.
“Our scientists take it as a challenge and always want to be the first to develop an assay when there is an outbreak,” says Eros. But, given that these other outbreaks ended up being relatively well contained, none of them turned Novacyt into a household name. Its customers are normally research labs, not governments.
“This is a significant opportunity for Novacyt to show what it can do,” says Eros.
Investors have been taking note. Novacyt is dual-listed on the Euronext Growth market and London’s Alternative Investment Market, and shares had been bumping along in a gentle decline for some time. By last October they were around £6 — now they are worth nearly 20 times that.
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Faster testing
Testing emerged as one of the most crucial factors in the Covid-19 pandemic, with the UK and the US, in particular, coming under fierce criticism for failing to test widely enough.
Now testing is being extended in the UK, from 5000 tests a day to 25,000 and in the US the Federal Drug Administration has made it quicker to get tests onto the market, starting with issuing Emergency Use Authorisations for tests made by Roche and Thermo Fisher.
One of the battles around testing is to improve the speed at which it can be done. Novacyt’s test takes about two hours complete. Many companies are trying to shave that time down. California-based Fluxology, for example, is attempting

WHO and CDC never discussed providing international test kits to the US, global health agency says

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/18/health/who-coronavirus-tests-cdc/index.html

Not sure it's nailed on..... But am hopeful that our guys are the in-house experts. They are a very talented bunch after all !

Thank Lloyd....

....check the RNS for dec 27th..... Regarding novaprep sale....can't open it ? Gremlins ?

Novacyt, Novaprep, Lab21, Lab21 Healthcare, Biotec, PLASMATEC, Microgen Bioproducts and associated logos are trademarks or service marks, and in some cases registered marks, of Novacyt Group in the EU and other countries. All other trademarks, service marks and logos used in the Sites are the trademarks, service marks or logos of their respective owners. Novacyt Group does not make any claims to the marks of others which might appear on the Sites. Novacyt Group products may be protected by pending and granted patents and design registrations.

John...... Thanks
Synairgen gets green light for coronavirus drug trial
Paul Sandle
LONDON (Reuters) - British pharmaceutical company Synairgen said on Wednesday it had the go-ahead to test a drug that could boost the lung function of patients with coronavirus, potentially assisting in the global fight against the pandemic.
The company said it had received expedited approvals from regulators to trial the drug - an inhaled formulation of interferon-beta-1a - in hospital patients who have COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Explaining the drug’s mechanism, Chief Executive Richard Marsden said interferon-beta was a naturally occurring protein instrumental to the body’s antiviral responses.
“Interferon-beta is like the conductor of the orchestra, you make it when you’ve got a cold,” he said in an interview. “It does all kinds of things to counter the effects of viruses.”
He said there was evidence that a deficiency in producing the protein could explain the enhanced susceptibility of at-risk patient groups to develop severe lower respiratory tract disease during respiratory viral infections.
“Another quirk to coronavirus is that the disease itself suppresses the production of interferon-beta in the lungs, and it does this to evade the immune system,” he said.
The drug, which has already shown benefits in two trials for asthma, aims to boost the amount of interferon-beta in the lungs, helping either prevent or diminish cell damage and viral replication, he said.
The pilot phase of the study has been given the green light by Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and Health Research Authority. The study, which is expected to start imminently, will involve 100 COVID-19 patients in hospitals in Britain.

Sirius.....the serology chat is just that.

Bella....I am learning more and more.
Very intriguing indeed

LSE had some issues .... getting all too regular.

Bella..... Thanks for sharing. I was under the impression that novaprep was sold in Dec 2019 ....but the novaprep website looks like premierdesign type website and also showing 2020 ?

Skittish..... that is quite shocking isn't it ?
I am horrified.....it's a sad world we live in.

Van....thanks for replying

Van.....I am perplexed. Check the date at bottom of this link.

https://novaprep.co.uk/about-us/

Van.....I was confused by the heading !

16/03/20
Posted in Board, Novacyt Group, NOVAPREP®, Products, Services, Uncategorized
Coronavirus test update Initial orders from Public Health England
Paris, France and Camberley, UK – 16 March 2020 – Novacyt (EURONEXT GROWTH: ALNOV; AIM: NCYT), an international specialist in clinical diagnostics, is pleased to provide an update regarding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) test developed by Primerdesign, its molecular diagnostics division. http://novacyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Novacyt-Covid-19-test-update-ENGLISH-16.03.20.pdf

Van...you are correct.
Completion of NOVAprep® business sale
Paris, France and Camberley, UK – 27 December 2019 – Novacyt (EURONEXT GROWTH: ALNOV; AIM: NCYT), an international specialist in clinical diagnostics, announces it has completed the sale of NOVAprep® assets to Algimed Trade Ltd. (“Algimed”), for a total consideration of €400,000 and a 10% royalty on sales in certain defined territories. Algimed specialises in

Serology testing ?

Novacyt Group, an international specialist in cancer and infectious diseases, has diversified sales from diagnostic products used in LBC, oncology, microbiology, haematology and serology testing.

We support a large global customer base which includes hospitals to large corporates. Our proprietary technology platform NOVAPREP® is a unique next generation liquid based cytology solution focused on cancer management.

Why worry about American approval ? The company is working flat out to provide test kits....an update on sales will make the SP go north ! We are selling across the world !!