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Channel 4 interview with Dr Stephen Kidd and Dr Veronica Fowler. Watch from 9 mins on.

Few interesting comments.

1:15 is the current test time bench mark (wonder who that is?)

Towards end of interview Dr Fowler is asked about false negatives... she's absolutely no concerns as their test has been compared against the "gold standard" which is Novacyt. I belive it is safe to assume they are using a Novacyt kit.

https://youtu.be/PpZBke4j67k

Would be a game changer
5>20 min LAMP test "equipment could be in use by next week". Note it ues Novacyt kits and can process 300 tests an hour.

'OptiGene's molecular test could be rapidly deployed by the NHS around the UK to significantly increase capacity to diagnose the virus.

The company says that 300 patient samples can be processed in an hour on a single instrument and it is now in talks with Public Health England on rolling out the tests.

It follows successful trials carried out by doctors at Basingstoke Hospital in Hampshire to validate the test.

Michael Andreou, managing director of OptiGene, which has operated from it base in Horsham for the past 12 years, said the test “takes less time to complete than any equivalent method currently in use.

“This specific and extremely sensitive test can operate directly from nasal and throat swabs to produce results in less than 20 minutes.

“Unlike the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test that has already been deployed for diagnosing the virus, the OptiGene procedure uses isothermal LAMP technology that does not require expensive and time-consuming RNA extraction and is inherently much faster than PCR.”

He added that the test “has now passed validation and is ready to be utilised.”

He said that Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust were ‘on board with this’ and it was hoped Public Health England would start rolling out the new test to a number of hospital trusts before use by the NHS nationwide.

He said OptiGene - a joint venture with Horsham based company OptiSense and Camberley-based firm GeneSys - first began work on devising test equipment as soon as the virus DNA sequence data was released by the Chinese.

The new test is being run on a series of instruments, developed and manufactured by OptiSense in Horsham and is sold under the OptiGene brand and includes both portable battery-powered devices as well as a larger high-throughput model.

The company hopes that after furnishing Public Health England with further data, its test equipment could be in use by next week'.

https://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/people/horsham-company-develops-rapid-new-test-coronavirus-2531127

Rightangled who are selling Primerdesign tests for
£199 advice "test kit has a shelf-life of 6 months" .

https://www.rightangled.co/more/coronavirus-information

https://www.rightangled.co/products/coronavirus-test

A minimal RNS, bit of a pitty. Shall havd to wait few days for the update on sales, manufacturing, JV and LAMP

Is there a link?

Link to overview of PCR testing

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2g2svj15MWB4Jl-7lK3cTuVUJFCeU4w7

Friends put together some YouTube videos on PCR testing for me, here's the link should anyone want to try level up knowledge.

I'll add in any videos i find on LAMP, for starters the acronym lol, Loop-mediated isothermal amplification ( LAMP)!!

Been thinking about LAMP, i believe this would be more significant than an antibody test. UK looked at 150 tests, it's a crowded market. Where as in quality we lead in Antigen market and if Optigen/Novacyt can commercialise the 5>20 min antigen test we would have an unassailable advantage.

Must admit my knowledge of testing and testing the test lol is about l a month old. I've been waiting 18 months for my other bio stock to enter phase 1 testing.

I can't imagine the UK allowing any steps to be missed. Hopefully the process will be sped up. We know that Novacyt progressed quickly.

My finger in air guess bases on Novacyt is around month for PHE approval. They can run the tests sids by side against the "primary" Novacyt tests. Plus whatever tests they ran to test original Novacyt test packs.

Then we are looking at manufacturing and distribution, with big partners involved could see this being done within a month.

Vanv you missinterpreted my statement. This is potentially great news for both companies.

I'm told it would have to be a different kit to those uawd now as LAMP requires different Enzymes and also use more primers for lamp too. I don't know what a Taqman probe is but I belive this is a change as well.

VanV noted. They are speaking to Gov and will then have to go through testing. Could be months away.. But still if they use Novacyt kits or IP this is great news for company and more importantly the world :-)

Basic info on sped up test can be found in Tweet. Includes image of the lab equipment, looks well made and compact.

They are going to speak to UK gov in next 24hrs

https://twitter.com/OptiGeneLtd/status/1245766737699786754?s=19

Can process 300 tests an hour. Plus :

"This specific and extremely sensitive test can operate directly from nasal and throat swabs to produce results in less than 20 minutes. Unlike the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test that has already been deployed for diagnosing the
virus, the OptiGene procedure uses isothermal LAMP technology that does not require
expensive and time-consuming RNA extraction and is inherently much faster than PCR"

This would be a game changer in the fight.

Not one for pumpy statements, but does feel like this is about to be one of hottest stocks going. Ducks are being lined up.

Donnotrader,

BASINGSTOKE hospital and OptiGene.

https://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/regional/andover/18354750.basingstokes-super-fast-covid-test-set-rolled-across-uk/

Some info on Isothermal LAMP technology

"Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is a single-tube technique for the amplification of DNA[1][2] and a low-cost alternative to detect certain diseases. Reverse Transcription Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) combines LAMP with a reverse transcription step to allow the detection of RNA.

LAMP is an isothermal nucleic acid amplification technique. In contrast to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology, in which the reaction is carried out with a series of alternating temperature steps or cycles, isothermal amplification is carried out at a constant temperature, and does not require a thermal cycler"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop-mediated_isothermal_amplification

https://youtu.be/cnXDTjCXGjE

They state they are working in partnership with Novacyt.

Any technicians on here with any ideas how they could reduce duration from 60>90 mins to 5>20mins?

My geneticist friend who may soon be running Primerdesign tests has no idea how Dr Stephen Kidd and his team could be doing this. My friend calls BS but Dr Kelly looks legit from looking at Linkedin account. Also see he is connected with Adam Herridge from Novacyt.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiddstephen

SirisB totally agree with you:

"They are very quite on the media front and very measured in their News Releases. Just stating the facts and not speculating. I get the feeling they are building strong relationships and acting with integrity"

Other than the dig at Government (doesn't seem to have done any harm) they have acted with tremendous integrity. Have learnt my lessons from investing in companies who get too excited.
Let the product and sales do the talking.

VanV its such a pitty be swung and missed after all the hard work you and others put in nudging him.

I don't see the media extracting any useful info on the Chinese tests. I expect we will find out on the day if PHE pass them. Let's hope they do. As we know the solution includes both tests.

Antibody only being accurate after 28 days will be game changing to governments strategy should the Deputy medical officer be correct.

Preston could do with learning about purpose of antigen and antibody tests, until then he's just fumbling on the dark.

My understanding of the antibody tests is it can't specifically determine if the antibodies have built up in responce to COVID-19, another Conora or other flu. A positive test needs to be confirmed with medical observation. I wonder if this is whats holding up PHE's approval.

I believe a good antibody tests is about 85% accurate.

Does anyone know accuracy ratings of any antibody tests?

The contact chasing could be done by NHS or civil service staff who are self quareteening. Those identified could go to drive in test stations and if not resource would be required to visit them at home.

PHE bought £1.1m of kits at £8.7 = 126k tests

5 to 10 days supply (10k to 25k a day) wtf

My take on efficient is the throughput on test equipment. This doesn't make much sense as 90mins is about as good as it gets for PCR.

My take is that we haven't utilised all the available lab space. My friend working at a uni lab tells me they haven't been contacted and have testing units and resource

I belive we are undergoing Herd immunisation by incompetence or negligence!!

Thanks Jacksdad, found it on their but was delayed. Not able to tell from London Stock Exchange if it shows up as a buy