Member Info for mizman

Continued.....
Do antibodies really protect us?
But Sir John, his team, and countless other scientists across the world are yet to answer the most crucial question, namely whether having Covid-19 antibodies actually protects a person from being reinfected. The three major studies currently underway which hope to answer that question are expected to see some results by the autumn, he said.

“These studies are what the UK is really good at, let me tell you, much better than anybody else. The Americans don’t have any of these studies,” Sir John said.

“But until we have answers, the test’s only utility is to tell people whether they've had the disease, not whether they’re protected from another wave of the infection.

“It’s useful in an analytical sense so that we can see the spread, but it’s no use to the man on the street.

“Everybody wants these tests, and people are saying ‘I wonder if that cough I had in March with a fever was actually Covid?’ And as a result, they want an antibody test to see whether that’s true or not. But it’s actually not much help yet in terms of returning to normal life.

And until it can be proved that antibodies confer protection, all talk of the “famous immunity passports” will have to wait, Sir John added.

Close to a breakthrough
So far every ten minute ‘lateral flow test’ (where finger prick blood is fed through a pregnancy-style cassette at home) tested by Public Health England (PHE) has been found wanting. The only validated options are so-called ELISA tests, where blood is taken intravenously by a medical professional and then analysed in a lab, which of course takes time.

However, Sir John believes his team are on the brink of a breakthrough.

Last week PHE launched a study into the effectiveness of a number of home testing kits, including one developed by the Rapid Test Consortium, involving Oxford University and four UK manufacturers: BBI Solutions, Abingdon Health, CIGA Healthcare and Omega Diagnostics. The results are due in late summer.

“We know the analytical quality is good,” Sir John said.

“All we need is the science that supports the notion that having antibodies is protection. We’re doing those experiments at the moment, and we’re doing them alongside T-cell studies.

“All I can say is we hope and think this Rapid Test Consortium test is the real deal, a game changer, if you like,” Sir John said.

“I foresee an antibody test appearing before the end of the year, and this may well be the one we’ve been waiting for."

From the recent Telegraph article :
The T-cell problem

Moreover, in recent weeks Sir John’s team has been grappling with a new challenge that in a worst case scenario could mean ten-minute finger prick tests would simply “never happen”.

A growing body of evidence now suggests that antibodies may form only a fraction of the body’s defence against the virus, Sir John explained. Instead, a separate part of the immune system, a type of white blood cell called T-cells, may be largely responsible.

“Let me tell you what the problem is,” Sir John said. “Around half of the immune response to this virus is through antibodies, and the other half is cellular.

“The cellular response is the bit of this formula that we don’t have yet. We’re busy working on that.

“Ideally, you’d want a finger prick test that people could use at home for antibodies, and a similar test for T-cells. The trouble is that measuring T-cell response is complicated. You really have to do it in a lab.

“The idea of sitting at home and testing your T-cell response just won’t happen. It’s about the complexity.”

Earlier this week a widely reported study found that around 30 per cent of Swedish blood donors had developed T-cell immunity to coronavirus – twice the number of cases in which antibodies were detected.

Yet, Sir John still believes that antibody testing will have an important role to play. He pointed to previous outbreaks of SARS and MERS, other types of coronavirus, where scientists found T-cell responses were largely simultaneous with antibodies.

In other words, if a person had developed antibodies to SARS or MERS, they usually had the T-cell response too, and vice versa. The T-cell responses tended to last longer, adding hope that protection may be long lived.

“We’re hoping that Covid behaves in a similar way,” Sir John said.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about the Swedish study, it was quite small. If everybody who has an antibody response also has a strong cellular response, then it’s possible that antibody tests might tell you that people will be protected for a long period of time. That would be an extremely useful piece of information, but we just don’t know yet.”

Natural immunity
As the virus gradually fades after initially spreading quickly, UK scientists are now considering a so-called ‘challenge study’ where volunteers known to have Covid-19 antibodies and T-cells are deliberately reinfected to test their response, Sir John revealed.

“You can’t do that until you’ve got a salvage therapy, because the risk is that somebody gets sick,” he said.

“But I think some of the new neutralising therapies look pretty good so if somebody ever got sick, you could fix it. I suspect the challenge study will be in the mid-autumn or by the end of the year. That

The head of the US drugs regulator has cast doubt on President Donald Trump's prediction that a Covid-19 vaccine will be ready this year.

"I can't predict when a vaccine will be available," US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner, Dr Stephen Hahn, said on Sunday.

Dr Hahn said vaccine development would be "based upon the data and science".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53302766

You can check in link below, but I can't see any:

https://www.sharesmagazine.co.uk/shares/share/ODX/trades

I would guess most shareholders are in 40s - to 60s range.

Downside from here very minimal, as though anything is possible I can't see any bad news on the horizon.

What we do have is fingers crossed weeks of good SP accretive news to look forward to post AGM.

OO is irrelevant IMO. Main dilution is from II and even if these shares haven't been forward sold, they are almost at placement price.

II's will want good news of CE, PHE approval and firm orders if they want to sell. Alternatively they could be holding for the long term, as we all know that news will lead to significant SP rerate.

No vaccine until 2021 at the earliest.

For production to potentially start next month, we would need UKRTC CE marking and PHE approval very soon.

Loads of news flow to really spark volume and interest this month.

Global demand and Gold Standard product

Olly Gardner commented:

“I couldn’t be more delighted to join Abingdon Health at this very exciting stage of their growth. It is such an honour to be at the heart of the fight against COVID-19 and I can’t wait to roll out our UK-RTC antibody test over the coming months. Then, over the next few years, I look forward to working with our brilliant team to become the number one rapid testing company across the world.”

https://www.abingdonhealth.com/abingdon-health-appoints-oliver-gardner-at-chief-operating-officer/

Not much social distancing in London last night. Expect a resurgence of the first wave as we move into autumn and sadly the onslaught of the second wave.

Yet, Sir John still believes that antibody testing will have an important role to play. He pointed to previous outbreaks of SARS and MERS, other types of coronavirus, where scientists found T-cell responses were largely simultaneous with antibodies.

In other words, if a person had developed antibodies to SARS or MERS, they usually had the T-cell response too, and vice versa. The T-cell responses tended to last longer, adding hope that protection may be long lived.

“We’re hoping that Covid behaves in a similar way,” Sir John said.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about the Swedish study, it was quite small. If everybody who has an antibody response also has a strong cellular response, then it’s possible that antibody tests might tell you that people will be protected for a long period of time. That would be an extremely useful piece of information, but we just don’t know yet.”

More juicy bits from the article :

Close to a breakthrough
So far every ten minute ‘lateral flow test’ (where finger prick blood is fed through a pregnancy-style cassette at home) tested by Public Health England (PHE) has been found wanting. The only validated options are so-called ELISA tests, where blood is taken intravenously by a medical professional and then analysed in a lab, which of course takes time.

However, Sir John believes his team are on the brink of a breakthrough.

Last week PHE launched a study into the effectiveness of a number of home testing kits, including one developed by the Rapid Test Consortium, involving Oxford University and four UK manufacturers: BBI Solutions, Abingdon Health, CIGA Healthcare and Omega Diagnostics. The results are due in late summer.

“We know the analytical quality is good,” Sir John said.

“All we need is the science that supports the notion that having antibodies is protection. We’re doing those experiments at the moment, and we’re doing them alongside T-cell studies.

“All I can say is we hope and think this Rapid Test Consortium test is the real deal, a game changer, if you like,” Sir John said.

“I foresee an antibody test appearing before the end of the year, and this may well be the one we’ve been waiting for."

Won't find out till the 13th.

I applied for 4 times my allocation.

#ODX @OmegaDiagnostic this was before we achieved DF. Now guess what. Global gold standard

https://twitter.com/Belcourtoi/status/1278949907555123200?s=09

Probably small sales related to the open offer. Brakes will be off tomorrow.

And you are sounding double'D desperate.

That's for India. Wonder how millions they will order?

We were told of 15 countries. India would be huge!