Times25 Nov 2022 11:34
A health testing company that responded to the government’s “call to arms” at the height of the Covid-19 outbreak has questioned ambitions to build a British diagnostics industry.
Abingdon Health reached a settlement with the Department of Health and Social Care in June over payments from the government for antibody tests and services provided.
The York-based, Aim-quoted testing company has received £6.3 million, but its profits and prospects have been damaged by the dispute, which has led to the redundancy of 80 employees, more than half its workforce, at its sites in York and Doncaster.
Speaking out alongside full-year results, Abingdon’s bosses said: “It is disappointing that we, alongside many other UK diagnostic companies, have had to spend time and money recovering monies owed despite responding to a ‘call to arms’ by the UK government.
“The group believed at all times that there were no legal grounds as to why these monies were not being paid in full by [the health department], but the reality was that it was important to reach a settlement with a counter-party that effectively had unlimited time and financial resources at its disposal to prolong the dispute.
“Given the UK government’s initial aim at the start of the pandemic was to build a British diagnostics industry, their behaviours have been quite the opposite, both in terms of how they have dealt with established UK businesses and their preference to order significant quantities of tests, through recently established intermediaries, predominantly from Chinese companies.”
In April 2020, as Britain was launching its emergency response to the pandemic and amid concerns about the country’s capacity to quickly diagnose coronavirus cases, Matt Han****, the health secretary at that time, called for companies “to build a British diagnostics industry at scale”.
In addition to the government’s dispute with Abingdon, the department is also embroiled in High Court litigation with Novacyt, another diagnostics company operating in the UK. The government launched a £135 million breach-of-contract claim against Novacyt, which the company has rejected. In June the company launched a counterclaim against the department of £81.5 million for goods and services and damages for breach of contract.
Abingdon reached its settlement with the department in June for outstanding invoices for lateral flow tests and component stock. The professional use, finger-prick antibody test was designed to let people know and monitor their antibody status before and after vaccination, as well as following infection with the virus.
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