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This will be a significant step forward for Opti if the clinical trials are successful.

Very many Opti shareholders have capitulated in the past two years so the share price is now low.

The IND adds to the recent Sweetbiotix contract to add further interest.

From The Times: Other than King Edward VIII’s abdication in 1936, The Yorkshire Post is not known for its world scoops, but it managed one yesterday. It reported that Omega Diagnostics is one of three companies contracted to make a Covid-19 antigen test developed by Avacta. That came as a pleasant surprise to investors and pushed the stock up 1.9 per cent to 81p.

Last week, the Department of Health and Social Care invited companies to submit proposals for the production of “circa 1.5 million swab collection kits per day”, as well as “circa 3.0 million saliva collection kits per day”. If delivered, the target would represent a 20-fold increase in the number of daily tests, which stands at about 230,000.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-matt-han****-banks-on-saliva-tests-for-operation-moonshot-lift-off-56vv0r26x

I had thought before that Boris Johnson and maybe Matt H were driving Moonshot themselves, frustrated at the pedestrian and incompetent work from the civil servants and other advisers. This lawsuit and the conflicting comments from various experts also seems to indicate this as does the Telegraph story today and the Boris quote in his TV address:

And though our doctors and our medical advisers are rightly worried about the data now, and the risks over winter, they are unanimous that things will be far better by the spring, when we have not only the hope of a vaccine, but one day soon – and I must stress that we are not there yet - of mass testing so efficient that people will be able to be tested in minutes so they can do more of the things they love. That’s the hope; that’s the dream. It’s hard, but it’s attainable, and we are working as hard as we can to get there.

Great spot Chiron. You are certainly living up to your name.

Good spot. Avacta’s neutralising affimers target the spike protein. But we have not been told it is being developed except in Korea. This is a long-term project using mesenchymal stem cells.

The hold-up could also be the administration of selection of patients and physical distribution. Who will take these decisions and on what basis? There will presumably be many people who will only want a supply of LTFs to sell elsewhere.

Then the results will need to be recorded and stored on a database securely. The AppDX may be the solution for this - hence the government subsidy for development - and the app will require authorisation by Apple and others before distribution.

These issues will be made complicated by the lack of an ID database and a secure allocation of on ID number to one person in the UK.

The online distribution of the UK government RFTs may well be through Amazon. They are the most obvious choice. Who else could do it as well. Boots would mainly be for distribution for those without the internet - or in a hurry.

Medusa is for non-government and wholesale distribution, maybe on a global basis.

All manufacturers will want to do tests before they release products containing SweetBiotix. This is the way each SweetBiotix strains will be introduced. But the manufacturer is paying over £100k pa during the testing period.

And Opti has other strains with different characteristics which can be sold elsewhere.

SweetBiotix is the product that could turn Opti around because the sales could be massive. In the US, the UK and other markets processed food manufacturers have created millions of obese people with progressive serious health problems. SweetBiotix offers such manufacturers the opportunity to continue peddling processed food but without causing the excess weight and consequent health problems.

Good spot Scotty. Worth a new thread.

The Tmac plstform looks like it is better technology than that used in Trodelvy in that it targets the payload in the tumour and not surrounding tissues. The message from this valuation is that Avacta should be moving full speed ahead with the Tmac programme.

And the $20 billion valuation is just from one drug whereas the Tmac platform should be able to develop a wide range of turbocharged therapeutics.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/gilead-near-deal-to-buy-immunomedics-for-more-than-20-billion-2020-09-12

Gilead is poised to pay over $20 billion for Immunomedics - unless someone else offers more. Trodelvy looks something like Avacta’s Tmac programme except that it is approved for use.

John Bell was talking about LFTs weeks ago, suggesting that people could have a “crate” of them in the bathroom for future use. Some people are saying that the government is doing fewer than 100,000 tests a day now.

I would really like to know why LFTs are not authorised by now at least in some countries! There has been plenty of time to decide which ones should be authorised either for sale or use. What is holding up Avacta’s tests or indeed other rapid tests?

A significant move.

Thanks for posting.

Do we have enough information to discern if the strategy of the Diagnostics Division has changed since May?

We know that Avacta has set up a trademark for AffiDX which is formed from the first four letters of affimer and the medical abbreviation of diagnosis.

The list of goods and services in the trademart status report references the analysis and reporting of diagnostic tests for Covid-19 and influenza. This could explain why the design freeze of the LFD was delayed -maybe Matt H or a senior official asked for the test to include flu as well.

But the list of goods and services also includes - indeed specifies first - mobile application software for medical diagnostics, mobile application software for the collection, analysis and reporting of diagnostic tests as well.

This could imply that Avacta also plans to extend its inhouse development of all or most of its diagnostic tests rather than licensing them to other pharma companies.

These include a test for the differentiation between bacterial and virus sepsis infection, Estradiol, D-Dimer and an improved test which can identify the active form of vitamin B12.

Following on from the June fundraising, Avacta will have the funds to develop these tests inhouse. And with Medusa 19 it has a friendly distribution company which is being set up and could take care of marketing as well as distribution.

Good find. AffiDX using AppDX. DX is a medical abbreviation for diagnosis.

Great spot Chiron.

Matt H does seem to be moving in the right direction. And now seems to be the right time to introduce mass testing. Schools are demanding this. University lecture theatres will be fairly empty without them. The bleating from airlines and airports feature on the news every day now. NHS installations will not be properly used without those visiting being cleared by a rapid test etc etc.

And the protocols would be applicable in most countries around the world.

Daily deaths from covid are now down to under ten compared to over 1000 in April. Ten per day is lower than the average from influenza. So the government has got the risk of covid down but the population still cannot live their lives like they did before. That is the task for government now.

Matt H tried to explain all this a week ago on the Today programme. But Mishal Husain wasn’t listening to what he Said and repeatedly interrupted him. It is better to release the info first to the newspapers and let radio and TV do the follow up. There was a better interview on Times Radio Breakfast at c 7.20am and maybe one on BBC TV.

He is focussed on two tests one which sounds like Avacta’s.

If 70 percent of the infected are asymptomatic and the others are asymptomatic for two days or more while they are spreading the virus, tests must catch these cases and take them out of circulation. That is why the Avacta test will be key as volume supplies can be ramped up.

Matt H is now doing a good job. It is the media which is not reporting accurately what is happening.

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/09/02/world/europe/02reuters-health-coronavirus-britain-testing.html

Rapid tests will be deployed as soon as governments and other entities can get hold of them. The constraint will be manufacturing capacity. And this will be constrained by the shortage of reagents which will not affect Avacta which will be able to appoint manufacturers around the world.