Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
As an aside, I’ve witnessed decision making in the public sector that would cost people their jobs in the private sector. When the survival of your company isn’t at risk from incompetence and dithering, poor leadership rises to the top.
I’m not saying that’s the case in all departments, but there’s a certain type of individual who thrives in that environment. You can get away with appalling errors of judgement when the taxpayer keeps footing the bill. It’s no wonder there’s so much toxicity at the top of these institutions. Any other CEO would be accountable to shareholders and lose their job...
Rant over.
This is largely an issue for behavioural science now.
People want it to be over. Vaccines have been rolled out, rates are down after lockdown 3. “Why do we need to test?” Is the question on people’s lips. Collective memories are short. “These tests are inaccurate anyway” they say. And they’re right, to a degree.
Against that backdrop, the Govt will be keeping its powder dry. When we get a test that is home grown and as good as it claims to be, when lockdown measures are largely lifted and the virus thrives, that’s when you need to get people onboard for regular mass testing.
In the meantime, selling a best-in-class LFT to places like India at the moment should be relatively straightforward. As AS kept saying, this is not about demand anymore.
Wyn - you’re talking yourself out of this investment (again) or are currently out (again).
I suspect the answer / solution lies somewhere between the two camps. We will neither see regular mass testing on a permanent scale, nor a complete lack of testing because vaccines are rolled out to the majority. Clear enough?
You’ve done this public hand-wringing before and nobody knows for sure how long and widespread testing will be. That’s a given - why do you keep bringing it up?
Wyn, with every day that passes, we are a day closer to the end of this pandemic. That’s a given and shouldn’t be cause for alarm for any investor here.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight just yet. Your point on India and rates is neither here nor there if the relatively normal levels of infection collapses the health service and lockdowns are reintroduced. The thought is their new variant has caused an increase in transmissibility and only lockdown will stop it.
How long can the world continue like this? Even with large portions of the population vaccinated, if you don’t keep an eye on local breakouts, it’s akin to turning a blind eye. We saw where that got us over the last 12 months.
If we really anticipate booster jabs every 6-12 months TFN, there is a compelling case to keep testing, even after most are jabbed. The government would be negligent if they didn’t do so, especially if a relatively cheap and accurate test was out there. This pandemic is far from over.
Very balanced article. Although no specific mention, it does refer to newer, validated tests. I think we’ll see PR ramp up as and when the Govt finally decide on their sovereign provider.
I wonder what’s going on at PD...? Bueller...?
AS mentioned a few times the desire to partner with overseas manufacturers. Mologic / GAD were the difference in getting our other UK partners over the time with the test architecture. With their expertise and global reach, they will likely be working on this as we speak. You’ve really got to wonder what sort of deals are being explored.
Our current batch of Affimers are proving to be versatile with new variants - the South African being the newest they detect. All in all, it’s looking rather promising - as we all expected.
And while it would be correct to say we haven’t sold a test yet, that’s simply the benefit of 20-20 hindsight. Forecasting how many tests we will go on to sell is rightly where the discussion is at
Hmmm. Not sure that even warrants a response. But let’s just consider:
-Best in class LFT
-UK consortium
-Fiercely nationalistic govt
-Stated intent to wean off Chinese goods
-Stated intent to develop future pandemic preparedness
If it looks like a duck, and all that.
Of course, nothing is guaranteed and one shouldn’t count chickens (or ducks) before they’ve hatched. But there’s a beak breaking out! Could it be us...?
Yep. Been saying it for months now. 9/11 was a paradigm shift for aviation. I hope we get to a state whereby we don’t always need to test before flying but I can’t see that happening soon. Not while this is bouncing around.
With scientists all predicting a third wave in the UK, likely to be towards the end of summer, this sadly bodes well for LFT sales here too. Or to put it positively, a best-in-class LFT will be highly desirable to mitigate the impact of easing restrictions!
I was thinking the same. Having gone through CV and soon to be CE marked, the whole PD process is looking somewhat shambolic.
I would not be surprised if ministers are soon shouting down the phone at senior PHE management over why a company can undertake CV and will soon be CE marked selling to the f*cling Europeans while our labs are still inspecting their own ar*eholes!!
With CV established and CE following hot on the heels, the RNS states:
“Completing the technical data set for self-declaration of a CE mark for professional use in early May, followed immediately by commercial launch in Europe”
While we’d all be delighted if we start selling to Europe in May, can someone remind me what the CE mark offers in terms of scalability worldwide? Pretty sure it’s been discussed here before, so thanks in advance.
Bottom line is if we have the most sensitive test across all Ct values - but particularly at higher Cts - we’ve got a potential World’s Best on our hands.
April ‘21 - Conducted CV with S&S figures of 98/99% across a broad range of Ct values down to to Ct of 31 with a *20 minute* reads time using For viral loads in the infectious range (Ct <27) the LFT demonstrated 100% sensitivity.
CEO Alastair Smith said:
"As part of the study the same clinical samples were tested with two leading, commercially available lateral flow antigen tests, and the data show that the AffiDx® test had better clinical sensitivity across the range of Ct value and in particular at lower viral loads.”
"We are completing the necessary assessment of the product from our manufacturing partner Global Access Diagnostics, including stability testing that will complete the technical file for CE marking, which we expect will happen in early May.“
People will still be complaining that CE marking won’t happen until next month...