Clinical specialist reaches deals in race to release test29 Feb 2020 06:46
Saturday February 29 2020, 12.01am, The Times:
A British-listed biotechnology company has signed a distribution agreement in Asia for its coronavirus test and a manufacturing agreement with an American healthcare group.
Novacyt, which specialises in clinical diagnostics, has reported a sharp rise in demand for its test since the outbreak of the deadly disease from China.
It has signed its first big agreement for the covid-19 test with an unnamed life sciences company to supply the test to two Asian countries outside China. Separately, Novacyt said that it had an agreement with an unnamed US group for the manufacture and sale of its tests.
Novacyt is also listed in Paris and is headquartered in France, but most of its operations are in Camberley, Surrey.
Primerdesign, its Southampton-based subsidiary, is developing the test, which is under review by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency approval, which would allow it to be used for clinical diagnoses.
Other national health authorities are regulating tests in different ways. Novacyt said that some had approved locally made tests for emergency use and some were also reviewing Primerdesign’s test.
Public Health England has invited manufacturers to submit tests for urgent evaluation. Novacyt said that it “is not known at this time what conclusions or guidance PHE will subsequently give to the NHS for covid-19 testing”. It said that it had put in place measures to boost production, including using capacity at both its UK sites.
Graham Mullis, 57, Novacyt’s chief executive said: “We believe the Primerdesign test remains among the quickest and most accurate tests available for covid-19, as well as being stable for long-distance shipping without the need for specialist cold-chain shipping.”
Its shares closed up by 32½p, or 28.3 per cent, at 147½p last night.
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