The next focusIR Investor Webinar takes places on 14th May with guest speakers from Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register here.
Free lateral flow tests face the axe under plans for living with Covid which Boris Johnson will announce within weeks.
More than £6 billion of public money has been spent on mass testing using the devices.
The new system could mean free tests being provided only in high-risk settings such as care homes, hospitals and schools, and to people with symptoms. Contact tracing by NHS Test and Trace is also likely to be scaled back.
A senior Whitehall source said: “I don’t think we are in a world where we can continue to hand out free lateral flow tests to everybody for evermore. It’s likely we will move to a scenario where there is less testing but where we have a capacity to ramp it up if necessary, such as in the winter.”
In another sign of the government’s desire to see life edge closer to normality, Nadhim Zahawi has become the first cabinet minister to back moves to reduce the self-isolation period from seven days to five.
The education secretary said: “The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) have said they want to review it, so we will stick to seven days but if they review it and say they will bring it down to five days that is even better for me, it’s even more helpful.”
Zahawi believes the country is “witnessing the transition of the virus from pandemic to endemic.”
He has announced that exams, including GCSEs and A-levels, will go ahead as normal this summer and criticised some universities for failing to bring back face-to-face teaching when students return next week.
“This is a big bump in the road but we have to make sure we are able to cope,” he said. “The virus is going to be with us for maybe five or six years longer and we are going to continue to have variants but vaccines will get better and we are going to have polyvalent and multivalent vaccines by next year.”
Polyvalent or multivalent vaccinations are designed to protect against any future coronavirus variant.
Dr Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group, said the Omicron variant could make Covid endemic.
He told Times Radio: “The thing that might happen in the future is you may see the emergence of a new variant that is less severe, and ultimately, in the long term, what happens is Covid becomes endemic and you have a less severe version. It’s very similar to the common cold that we’ve lived with for many years.
“We’re not quite there yet but possibly Omicron is the first ray of light there that suggests that may happen in the longer term. It is, of course, much more transmissible than Delta was, which is concerning, but much less severe.”
Nearly all scientists now accept that coronavirus will never go away. Instead, immunity from vaccinations and infections will eventually make it no less severe than seasonal flu. A year ago about one in ten cases resulted in hospital admission. Now it is fewer than one in 50 cases.
MM tweet just now (for those interested!):
My view is that #AVCT's AffiDX LFT has already proved that the Affimer platform is a success in a Diagnostics setting. The best-in-class sensitivity of the LFT is as a result of Affimers (as opposed to everyone else's antibodies).
It is now just a matter of time.
Patience patience patience, as Affimers slowly become the building block of choice in the global Diagnostics industry ($50bn pa plus?) over the next decade.
We simply await proliferation of the mAb market.
Agreed, Affimers in Therapeutics is entirely unproven. But, in a similar manner to Affimers taking over from mAbs in a Diagnostics setting, Affimers replacing mAbs in Therapeutics would be just a matter of time - of course, assuming that Affimers were proved safe in man!
The pre CISION platform is certainly entirely unproven.
Prove that these two Therapeutics platforms work in man, then #AVCT (or at least, its tech platforms - which will most likely be licensed out to, or acquired by, much bigger fish by then!) can target multi-hundred billion dollar markets with best-in-class platforms.
That's the LT #AVCT picture.
Affimer Diag has been proved best-in-class amongst the antibody mimetics. It now completely backs up #AVCT current mkt cap (and one could argue many multiples in a pretty short term horizon).
Then value Affimer Thera + pre CISION as speculative.
Now that Big Pharma has seen the power of #AVCT's Affimers in the real world (esp once MeduFlow starts selling into homes across the world), it stands to reason that they will want the global exclusive rights over the tech to develop Affimer-powered LFTs for all sorts.
Ends.
Courtesy of Poirot..
Avacta nominated for Best Technology at the European Mediscience Awards. https://www.mediscience-event.co.uk/nominations-overview/
You are 100% right…..but….those of us who know….know….that it is….actually….us.
Thanks gents, you’ve gone above and beyond, and I really enjoyed reading all about it!
We’re almost there now..
Pop it in AVCT for the next month or so, then come back here.
You can now only close positions that are already open, you can’t open new positions long or short.
Not seen that before so perhaps they’ve reached their max exposure (I’m not an expert!).
Not sure what it signifies (if anything!), but both Spreadex & IG have stopped taking on long positions on AVCT this morning.
Good point PL, thank you.
“The lateral flow testing market is forecast to be worth $10.2bn by 2025.”
I would have hoped the worldwide market would be larger than that between now and 2025?
Please ignore him.
The guy needs help from a professional.
He hasn’t taken the hint based on all the likes to him leaving, and never getting many himself, that he is disruptive, and constantly subtly negative. He ruins the board.
I feel for him on a personal level, but this isn’t the forum for his redemption.
Posted too soon!
Paul Hill (Vox) just posted this draft timeline of interviews with AS.
Draft timetable for future #AVCT video interviews
* Monday 15th - 3rd party royalties/licensing opportunities
* 2-4 weeks: final results from clinical trial of covid rapid LFT & CE Mark
Prelims - April
Summer - start of phase 1 patient dosing with Prodoxorubicin
Well that’s the icing on a great day ;-)!
Jalapeño poppers will do it for me, and a K Coder.
I can’t wait to see what you bought from your Waitrose trip for the party :-)
I have written everything down, as we all know what gets written on these boards makes a difference to the week mixed amongst us!
Here’s to wealth and happiness to us all in the coming months (no Sea-lion, Clip Clopping, or Reverend in sight).
Been here since April, and I have read EVERY message since then, I have nothing to add so have been a watcher.
I saw the last weekend, posters talking about weekend walks with their Mrs, when they would talk to them about AVCT – I was so pleased I wasn’t alone – I told the Mrs and she said, wait for the dog walk before you talk about Awacta!!
Anyway, this week has just been great to see, and I always planned to hold for a year or 2 more than now and will do so, but it really feels like we are on the cusp of (34!) announcements.
Finally, I just want to say thank you to the defenders of the board, it really does make a difference. (MattDamon85).
So many thank you’s, especially the non-emotional researchers, but special recognition and thanks goes to PL75, who has been here since H1 2020, and mixes the scientific detail with Federer style backhands and JonesRichard style optimism - £200 ex Chi-nah!!
Whatever happens tomorrow and this week, hold for gold!
Final point, the longer you can hold the more money you can make – don’t sell too soon!!
If we get offered £20 per share, I’ll be using my shares to vote against it.
I will be looking for more than that, and the longer we stay independent the closer we get to £200 (ex Chy-nah) which may seem ridiculous now, but having been in this share since last April and read everything about it, is definitely an outside possibility in a few years time.
Ps I have never seen this board as quiet (and lacking any negativity) since I bought in 10 months ago!
Bodes well for this month (fingers crossed emoji).
And you can see all the opposition here:
https://www.racap.com/media/Covid-19/COVID-19_DX_02122021_F.pdf?v=zYuQHHlgbuHYwav6x8REEfcI8cnL7sPy-ZSBs-Qifbg
Excited for this week!
That does makes sense, and then post Boris’s big reveal on the week of the 22nd, it will be interesting to see how much of the detail of each company’s involvement is actually made public.
For example, will we actually get told our profit margin - I don’t think we will..
I still think there will be some unknowns after that week, but we will be far more relaxed about them as we’ll have the big picture stuff finally confirmed.
Are we nearly there yet? Yes, I think we finally are!
I bought in between April and June, average 60p.
150k shares, haven't sold any (can't trade as my timing is always wrong!)
I'll hold till end of Q2 2021 by which time all trial data will be known and EUA granted and licensing deals starting to be signed.
If the vaccines look like they genuinely work, I'll sell then.
If, as I think, the virus continues to mutate so the current crop of vaccines are less effective, then I will hold until the beginning of the flu season at the end of 2021 when I can see the SP going up again.
Re spreadbetting - Spreadex offer SNG and more AIM shares than IG, plus their margin requirements are lower than IG - not for the fainthearted at all though!
Whilst I acknowledge that nothing is certain here, I believe that this will be worth signinficantly (10X+) than current share price before my first potential exit date.
Whatever your average and exit price - good luck to you all, and for the sake of humanity let's hope SNG001 has the impact we all believe it can.
Isn't Dido appearing in from of a Parliamentary Select committee this morning?
If so, the small rise could be to to do with comments made in that?