taken from investors chronicle today8 Dec 2020 21:05
Both Omega and Novacyt are looking to care homes as key markets, and continue to improve and develop both antigen and antibody tests – testing, respectively, for current and past infection.
That does not guarantee success in what looks like an increasingly competitive market – with major research and development challenges still to be overcome, a clear rapid test winner is yet to emerge – although Novacyt must be seen as the front-runner among the listed players, racking up patent after patent in Covid testing.
And if, as vaccine progress suggests, the world may see a slow return to normality, then testing companies must also be judged according to what life may look like post-Covid. In Novacyt’s case, that could be bright. While Covid-19 may have been the killer application its technology had been looking for, the validation offered by the pandemic has delivered a strong foundation from which to develop its non-Covid business – as with vaccines development, broader awareness of the value of diagnostics increases and improvements in diagnostic technology may be Covid’s second silver lining.