The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
Looks like Mr Deeks is finally responding to news of the AVCT test.
Jon Deeks ?? (@deeksj) tweeted at 11:20 pm on Mon, Feb 22, 2021:
This isn't the best from Huffington- these first results from Avacta are nearly exactly the same as Innova initially reported using the test in people with pneumonia.
Exclusive: 5-minute Covid test plan to reopen nightclubs, theatres and sports events https://t.co/mOW97j7Rrn
(https://twitter.com/deeksj/status/1363992059804286977?s=03)
thanks for posting, i don;t think Justin was listening
Not seen this, excellent read, hope its true.
Adds nothing of value to this Board, filtered.
Miss your contributions on here. Not really sure how you think people can stop that behaviour personally, we are not admin. I would like to think LSE board went downhill because people were bored of no news. No excuse now. I don’t read it as much as I did because of the senseless name calling that fills the chat and you miss the decent stuff that occasionally gets posted. Perhaps a reset would be good and let’s discuss the Company in a more constructive way.
Nice to see the old faces coming back . Its been a long and difficult road with casualties taken along the way. Happy that those who lost faith in this share are still in with enough to make some good money. Remember how we all moaned at the performance targets set for the CEO? I think he has earned his bonus now!
Because it is absolutely the best joke he has ever made and deserves repeating at every opportunity. How can you not find it funny? Its a really clever play on letters keep it going mate.
The arrogance of JDEEKS is unbelievable. He is supposed to be a statistician but will not give LFT a fair crack of the whip and sees nothing but gold standard with PCR. The nuances have been pointed out by people more knowledgeable then me yet he continues to dominate the media with this percieved bias.
You must be watching a different question time Did you miss the concern from Matt H about people who have had the vacine may still transmit the disease so will need to monitor that for a year. How will they do that do you think? How would you TEST to see if someone had C19? I guess it comes down to your mind set or your knowledge when summarising what you hear Keep the faith my friend.
Testing framework set to cost at least £42bn
THE Government is set to hand out up to £42bn of taxpayer cash to private contractors in the drive to significantly expand the UK’s testing infrastructure to deal with the pandemic.
The mammoth sum, equivalent to the annual defence budget, involves a £22bn contract put out to tender last week by Public Health England, and a £20bn deal already awarded by the NHS, official filings show.
Public Health England will create a new national framework for testing that comprises diagnostic testing services, research and development, and manufacturing, according to the contract.
In June, the Government estimated the cost of the “National Microbiology Framework” to be £5bn. However, the severity of the crisis has forced Matt Han****, the Health Secretary, to dish out as much as £22bn to build up testing capacity to deal with the current crisis and future threats.
The cost of the framework dwarfs an existing arrangement completed in 2017 at a cost of £80m to £120m.
The huge disparity in costs will provide more ammunition to critics of the Government who argue that Britain was underprepared for a pandemic that involved mass clinical testing.
The term of the framework will be for an initial two-year period with options to extend for a further two.
Separately, NHS Supply Chain, the body that manages the sourcing and supply of health products to the NHS, has awarded contracts worth as much as £20bn to private firms for “pathology and point of care” testing supplies. These tests take place in hospitals and in other NHS settings. About 170 firms were awarded parts of the contract.
What amazing timing, just in time for the big US company to get their 10%. What luck!
Obviously!
Boris Johnson has told ministers they must "work flat out" to ensure coronavirus can be controlled when lockdown lifts next month, saying December 2 should be viewed as "a deadline and a target" for new solutions.
During a Cabinet meeting this morning the Prime Minister told his top team that while the country face the " uncertain gloom of November", there was "light ahead".
Mr Johnson told colleagues: "These measures – the crucial thing to understand is that they expire on December 2. They come to an end. And we therefore as a government and indeed as a country have a deadline and a target to develop solutions which previously…did not exist."
As well as new treatments and the prospect of a vaccine, he pointed to mass testing, which is being piloted in Liverpool from Thursday.
"Rapid turnaround testing that I believe can be a massive and possibly decisive use to us in this country in defeating the virus," Mr Johnson said. "So amid the uncertain gloom of November I see light ahead and I’m absolutely certain that we will have better days before us."
I predicted it too, can I have a prize too? Lol. But I also thought the sp would drop as a result. I guess the real prize is for the those that predicted a fund raise and the sp went up. Well done if you did. Let's hope they use the money wisely and the Auz Govt don't come asking for their business support money back now.
I think we are involved too.
13 July 2020
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")
Collaboration with Integumen plc for Detection of SARS-COV-2 Coronavirus in Waste Water
Partnership to evaluate the use of Affimer reagents to detect the coronavirus using novel sensors
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and reagents, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a collaboration with Integumen plc (AIM: SKIN) ("Integumen") to evaluate recently generated Affimer reagents that bind the SARS-COV-2 spike protein for the detection of the coronavirus in waste water, to provide a real-time alert system to warn of localised COVID-19 outbreaks.
Over 60 percent of COVID-19 positive patients had gastrointestinal symptoms, such as diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, and the SARS-COV-2 virus was found in their faecal samples. Sampling waste water from households may therefore provide an early warning system for localised outbreaks in communities.
Recently, Avacta announced that it had generated a number of highly specific Affimer reagents that detect the SARS-COV-2 virus spike protein for use in diagnostic tests and in neutralising therapies.
The collaboration with Integumen announced today aims to evaluate some of these Affimer reagents in next-generation sensors, based on the real-time bacteria detection and alert system1 developed by Rinocloud Ltd, a subsidiary of Integumen, with the aim of integrating these sensors into Modern Water plc's Microtox water contamination system to detect the coronavirus. The award-winning Microtox system, which can detect the presence of contaminating bacteria, virus and toxins, is distributed by Modern Water and has a global footprint of over 3,000 installations. The proposed Affimer sensors would be consumable items to be replaced on a roughly monthly basis.
Once initial testing of the Affimer reagents is completed over the next few weeks, validation of the sensors will be carried out using SARS-COV-2 virus samples in a containment level 3 laboratory at the University of Aberdeen. Upon successful completion of this evaluation, Integumen and Avacta will enter into a supply agreement to allow Integumen to manufacture and commercialise the waste water detection sensors globally by retrofitting into Microtox systems.
Cont.
There are also 24 sites in Wales and 28 in Scotland where sampling is being done, with the projects being led by the devolved administrations and the UK Government coordinating the findings.
Environment Secretary George Eustice said: "This is a significant step forward in giving us a clearer idea of infection rates both nationally and locally, particularly in areas where there may be large numbers of people who aren't showing any symptoms and therefore aren't seeking tests.
"NHS Test and Trace is able to use the science to ensure local health leads are alerted and can take action."
Health Secretary Matt Han**** said: "This initiative is just one example of how we are working across government and with local partners to find innovative, new ways to track the outbreak, slow the spread of the virus and save lives.
"Monitoring and sampling wastewater offers another tool to help us identify outbreaks early on - helping NHS Test and Trace and local authorities target hotspots quickly and effectively."
From today's Daily Telegraph
Monitoring sewage to detect Covid-19 outbreaks is effective, the Government has revealed as it plans to expand the programme across the country.
Scientists have been trialing the method since June, and have found that they can see spikes early on in areas which have low testing.
The programme to analyse sewage for traces of coronavirus will now be used to provide an early warning for local outbreaks. It can also give a clearer picture of asymptomatic spread, and show a surge before people develop symptoms.
Officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the method is successfully detecting fragments of genetic material from the virus in waste water.
Data from this testing, which has been rolled out to more than 90 waste water treatment sites across the UK, is being shared with the Joint Biosecurity Centre as part of NHS Test and Trace.
Don't know if posted already but if not, article shows home testing is going to be relevant for over 2 more years.
ROYAL Mail is targeting a contract worth almost £800m to spearhead mass home testing for up to two and a half years under Boris Johnson’s “Operation Moonshot”.
Keith Williams, the chairman, wants postal workers to deliver and collect up to 200,000 home Covid testing kits a day until mid-2023.
Sorry Faz, didn't notice you had posted this here as well a few days ago. Great update.
Found on another site for a Company that was at the event as well
I ust had a call from a friendly analyst at Stifel to apologise for my wasted time yesterday on the virtual conference.
He explained that the group discussion was merely a side-show and it was left open to the individual companies as to whether they attended or not. The main event was the 1-2-1 sessions with Institutional Investors, of which he couldn't confirm exact numbers or names but believed that Seeing Machines held these with 4 or 5 institutions looking for medium/long-term investments in market leaders and disruptors. Again it was generic feedback but he said the sessions had been very well received by both the presenting companies and the institutions.
After some probing, he did let slip a few names that generally attended the 121s with all presenting companies:
Kabouter - https://kaboutermgmt.com/ - HQ in Chicago with satellite office in San Fran
Federated - https://www.federatedhermes.com/ - HQ in Pennsylvania - Over $600 billion in managed assets as of June 2020
The 3rd name sounded like he said "GE Sure" but the closest I can find is https://geosureglobal.com/the-team and I'm not sure it's them.
He referenced the acquisition of Mainfirst by Stifel and suggested that the 2 companies are still largely operating as seperate entities, however the intention is to combine these types of events going forwards for even greater reach.
He did confirm he's expecting a further event late in Q1, usually back-end of March which generally lasts 2 days and attracts huge numbers of attendees. Obviously no guarantees at this stage whether this will be virtual or on-site but if at all possible the preference is for these to not be virtual.
The biggest event is likely to be 1st or 2nd week of June. This would generally be held in Boston and would attract over 2,000 attendees.
Potentially another Stifel event in early October next year and maybe December too.
He also mentioned that Mainfirst will likely be looking to run a big event next September in Europe and Stifel are intending to be more involved with this.
Finally he said David Mayo (Director, Stifel) is "very keen on these events" so they are very likely to go ahead although no guarantees on timing or virtual/on-site.