Member Info for Muck165

Possibly needing to ensure bio-safety of the test for home use..?

Seems like a modification to an existing test to satisfy the French and allow access to that mkt

Agree Sheltie - better to sit quietly in the back of the car waiting to arrive safely at the end of the rainbow than be shouting “are we there yet” every 2 mins

https://www.rapidtests.org/ is a pretty useful site, often touted by Michael Mina, to explain why rapid tests are needed. There are some FAQ’s on there at https://www.rapidtests.org/faq, and within those FAQ’s they explain that there are two types of sensitivity;

“- If someone has the virus, diagnostic sensitivity is the probability that a test will detect it.
-If someone is contagious with the virus, contagiousness sensitivity is the probability that a test will detect it.“

I maybe wrong but I think diagnostic sensitivity is usually the only measure reported when test specs are announced, but it seems to me that contagiousness sensitivity is likely the more important measure given the ultimate screening aims of rapid LFT’s. I hope that when AVCT do finally announce our test specs then both measures of sensitivity are quoted.

Would be great to see significant BAMS revenue.

But the real thing I’m looking for is the S&S, because that will demonstrate how effective Affimers are, and longer term that will shine a spotlight on the company and its proprietary tech

If only Nick Robinson had just let Han**** finish what he wanted to say about it....

Han**** on at 8.10 today program R4

Suspect that relates to their RNS today, which is confirming CE Mark for Mologic antibody test

More detail here

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-continues-boost-national-covid-19-testing-capacity

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2020-09-02/us-nih-awards-nine-companies-129-million-to-scale-up-covid-19-testing

No self tests included as far as I can see

Abingdon have always seemed to me to be a company that likes to frequently use social media, especially twitter, and so it seemed a little odd to me that they’ve put nothing out today. Just a musing, but could this be a further indicator that the govt have asked them to shift focus away from the RTC antibody test (for which they were the lead), and they’re just a little miffed at having to do so?

For info - Avacta updated their website on 27 August with https://avacta.com/investors/key-information/

Just a couple of interesting pieces for those interested..

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/opinion/cdc-testing-coronavirus.html

https://london.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2025846&jwsource=cl

For those interested, Sona gave this news release today;

https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/62859/Sona-Engages-Sports-Marketing-Partner-to-Secure-Concussion-Test-Development-Partner

Nothing to do with their Covid test, and will I’m sure be seen by some as kicking Covid news down the road. But it does say they they submitted their full app for EUA to the FDA last week and so it will be interesting for us to see, as a gauge, how long it takes to come through (if at all).

Perhaps, but If we can demonstrate accurate diagnostics and effective therapeutics using Affimers during this pandemic, then surely our value as a defence against future pandemics will become obvious. And that will bring massive opportunity I think.

For those interested it looks like there is going to be a discussion on this today, with an audio available after the broadcast. See

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/08/31/rapid-testing-return-to-normal

There seems to be quite a debate happening stateside about whether the Abbot test could be used for general screening of asymptomatic people, even though that’s not what the FDA authorised it for in the EUA. Scientists are mostly saying no, politicians seem to be saying yes.

See https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/08/abbott-covid-19-rapid-tests-trump/615826/

and then this twitter thread https://twitter.com/HHS_ASH/status/1300146630201610240

Interesting that Brett Giroir has become involved in that conversation.

@Affimer - re the possibility of a govt NDA, it is worth remembering https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/assessment-and-procurement-of-coronavirus-covid-19-tests/coronavirus-covid-19-serology-and-viral-detection-testing-uk-procurement-overview, and in particular the reference to NDA’s in the Analytical Evaluation section.

On a quiet Sunday some of you might be interested in having a look at https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/about.

The site describes an exercise conducted in October 19 about how a fictional pandemic, based on SARS, might spread across the globe, what effects on health and economies it might have, and then makes recommendations about how the impacts might be mitigated. The exercise was supported by John Hopkins Uni, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, and the world economic forum.

Now of course, and just a few months after the exercise, we have seen a similar pandemic affect the world, and experienced the various impacts of it. That being so, I can only assume/hope that world governments will focus on implementing the same kind of recommendations that this fictional exercise made, which included more resource and support for diagnostic/therapeutic companies (like Avacta).

https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/resources/COVID-19/molecular-based-tests/COVID-Molecular-Tests-commerical.xlsx

Just gives some more details on approved tests..