Member Info for Trickymatters

Dr Hopkins at the government press briefing now has just said lateral flow tests will be available to anyone who wants one if they have a public facing role in testing centres being set up all over the country. 'Lateral flow tests are a very effective part of our defence against the virus '. It's becoming common consensus that we will continue to have to consider the virus as a feature of our lives for the foreseeable future. Matt Han**** now discussing how we get back to normal. We are still learning about transmission. How do we do that do we think?
I think it will take all year to vaccinate the whole of the UK. 4 million done so far in 6 weeks. Looking like they could get 12 million done before they have to start 2nd doses. So at 2 million a week (not achieved yet) another 6 weeks. That will still be referencing the first vulnerable groups. They want to start ending restrictions in March. Only way is mass testing. This is the time for British diagnostics. At long last.

I am not holding my breath that we will be in there. We will get the big antibody test contracts worth up to £285 million- deadline next week. Just seen Johnson on BBC news saying we will have to take 'a number of measures ' to help us out of restrictions. The Telegraph are saying that regular, mass testing will get us out of lockdown from March. Government want us to move towards a UK diagnostics industry. Beckman Coulter and DNA Nudge confirmed today, have been removed from the MHRA emergency approval list for tests so the competition are down. If you are in Genedrive now is the time to bail out and top up here.
But we could have a chance at the billion pound lft if Mologic or Avacta get their results out this week. And now we know that lft antibody tests will be 'phased in' if City AM are telling the truth.
And penultimately, the less than heroic attempt of the deramp mob to trash the sp have fallen flat of course. The FDA have changed the regulations for emergency use about 5 times since September. Unsurprisingly Abingdon have had to do some extra leg work to meet the changing requirements.
Finally, someone needs to explain to anyone who thinks that the Coronovirus Act won't trump other legislation in terms of getting things done- policy informs bureacracy, not vice versa. Oh and the government makes laws btw. And they have a massive majority with a fairly supportive opposition regarding the pandemic.

We don't know that AVCT don't have a test. We do know that they have been in talks with ODX and that they have had formal agreement with some of the RTC for them to manufacture AVCT tests. Colin King confirmed that there had been conversations and said clearly in response to whether ODX would produce their tests, that ODX will do all it can of course, to support plans to control and reduce the virus. Quite right too. Check the investors presentation. Most of us are fully aware of this. ODX are not helping them make the test. The engineer who was seconded there would have been looking at manufacturing requirements. They are part of a consortium and they are very likely to be collaborating as such if/ when the AVCT test comes out. But utter made up nonsense to suggest we are making it for them. Ffs.

Beautiful day so going out for a long walk. Will share when I get back. Deeks has 'clarified ' earlier tweets 'not all antigen lft tests are the same. ..previous comments were about Innova '.
Dr Michael Mina, the well known Harvard epidemiologist is also tweeting again today. He has written in the Washington Post and loads of scientific publications to trash Deeks 'misinformation '. Michael Mina is being touted as a potential pick for Biden's administration in a senior professional role.

Yes it is. And government are buying materials for them. I thought that had been shared already?

Dr Michael Mina, now tipped for a role in Biden's senior administration team, is tweeting again about Deeks. Will share later from my pc. He is taking him apart in detail on both the science and the stats. Calling Deeks dangerous for misinformation. Good stuff. Won't be long before Deeks has a reckoning. I think he's after the attention. Could actually be proper mad. His stats is what made me realise there's something badly wrong as I observed months ago when he came up with a convoluted piece of nonsense to suggest that Innova's 86% sensitivity somehow equates to 3% of accurate case detection. Innova is irrelevant anyway for us but it has affected confidence. Shocking that a couple of journalists have such poor understanding of statistics to let that nonsense get to print. Where is the editorial oversight?

He's fleshing out the big picture aiming to reassure Americans that he has a serious plan to get them out of the dire situation they are in. He's not going to name every thing they will do. Irrelevant that he hasn't name checked SYN at this stage. He's spending the money and the FDA have fast tracked the trials. That's massive.

Don't apologise Handsome1! Great share. My favourite sentence is Professor Susan Hopkins, senior medical adviser from PHE, saying recovery from infection gives you the same or better protection than the vaccine. As we have been recognising from the wider research base for a long time.
Good user name btw, lol. Is it true?

Another one awarded for £6.9 million to add to one for over £900 million showing from December now. Though I haven't seen it on the site before. Biodot supply Omega which we know because they tweeted a photo of a machine, last year with a message saying 'where did I put my screwdriver?' and Biodot have also namehecked Omega in tweets. And yes, Colin King said he would like to expand production beyond the published plans if they had support from government- was it the November investors presentation?
I think the Twitter detectives are pretty damn good sometimes. Double check what they say but that lines up imo.

Is anyone taking him seriously? All his posts are in character. Semi satirical. Same thing Sam Pullcox did. And he had a couple of previous incarnations of some strange names one of which is too nasty to repeat. Same style of writing. Obviously a clever boy. Not sure of he's a self styled Ali G or whether he's just dead right wing. I am hoping the former.

For antibody tests- to add to England's offer forcare workers. On the Gov.uk site. Updated yesterday. Must have been updated after hours.

Or, rather than take Twatcher's word check Twitter yourself. They are sharing updates to the site from today and yesterday. The older screen shots are shown for context- so we can see continuity with contributions from the same team. I don't know enough about these things (coding and opening up it's development in this way) but I am pointing out that Twatcher is being selective about the facts as they are presented. No change there then.

Not bad hey? Abingdon and ODX have a USA sales and distribution network don't they?

They have turned down the Innova test, not all lfts. In the meantime Joe Biden has agreed a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan including $50 billion for tests. I expect the US will want good tests. Their scientists have long argued not to let 'perfection be the enemy of good ' as far as lft tests are concerned - which they see as high value in terms of the cv19 armour.

May is for completion. They will report on interim results, home trials recruitment, results of home trials and final report and it looks as if there's a concerted pr plan ongoing already. But the trial size has been reduced from 800 to 600 after FDA amendment and fast tracked since the original proposal so the US Operation Warp speed's Activ2 trials will also be covered won't they? We will have big pharma and/or international government interest by the time of the interim results imo.

Might put Mologic centre stage then. Schools are closed now anyway for most kids. Mologic's antigen is 92% sensitive as opposed to Innova's 86%. Hmmm. Tortoise and the hare anyone?

That's interesting. That the MHRA refused to approve Innova tests. Looks like the DHSC are planning to go ahead anyway. See how that goes then. Certainly will put the government and PHE under pressure to get some more accurate tests into play and withdraw Innova asap. So £75 million spent on Innova tests could end up wasted.

Baked Bean, it's from the SIREN study. Tracking 40,000 health workers since May. I don't see how 44 reinfections from a cohort of 6614 who had the virus before and got it again (at a lower level of infection) means 83% protection. It's over 99% protection. They must have agreed a totally made up confidence interval to allow for the fact that health workers don't represent the demographics of the nation. If it's not a random sample it's not a random sample. They would be better off saying 99% protection for people between 20 and 66 or whatever the age range is.
Anyway as has been pointed out already the study has been going for 5 months which is why the report says at least 5 months. Sadly the press are reporting 5 months. Several big US studies have said 8 months at a time when the virus had been with us for 8 months. And the WHO are still saying it's very rare to get it twice. So this knowledge has been available for months now.
Just annoying how risk averse they have turned out to be on this matter. Millions have had it and are extremely unlikely to get it twice but they are subject to the same restrictions as everyone else. Unless of course you work for the NHS and get pressured to go to work even if you are in a vulnerable group. My mate is a cancer survivor (from years ago) and was pressurised to go to work on wards- ended up getting it of course! The government are pretty unscientific about it all I think. Absolute panic stations. Understandable with new variants I suppose.
Anyway the fact that there are new contracts coming onstream for antibody e- support systems for assessment as well as the 2 big contracts we knew about, suggests that they will go quite large on antibody tests of all kinds.

Once more with feeling! Sorry the text bunched up on my last post. These are a few antibody test contracts. A couple more new ones for e-services to help analyse antibody tests- included one here too. Looking good guys and gals.
Relevance
Antibody Testing Kits
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC - Test and Trace)

Owing to the developing nature of our response to COVID-19 the Contracting Authority is establishing a Dynamic Purchasing System to facilitate the procurement of Testing Kits, technologies or Devices for the detection, analysis or monitoring of COVID-19 Antibodies. Suppliers can register interest at http://health.atamis.co.uk

Notice type Opportunity
Notice status Open
Closing 21 January 2021, 12am
Contract location LS2 7UB
Contract value £30,000,000 to £100,000,000
Publication date 21 December 2020
Antibody Lateral Flow Test Kits
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC - Test and Trace)

Owing to the developing nature of our response to COVID-19 the Contracting Authority is establishing a Dynamic Purchasing System to facilitate the procurement of Lateral Flow Testing Devices for COVID-19 Antibodies. The contracting authority expects to seek purchases for research and surveillance studies in 2021

Notice type Future opportunity
Notice status Open
Approach to market date 19 January 2021
Contract location SW1H 0EU
Contract value £30,000,000
Publication date 5 December 2020
End to End Laboratory Service for COVID-19 Antibodies
Department of Health & Social Care

Provision of Laboratory Services, Kit Logistics and electronic results management for COVID-19 antibody serology samples on a 1+2 year contract basis A Supplier engagement will be held on Wednesday 20th January 2021 via Microsoft Teams. You can register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/supplier-engagement-tickets-133703461653

Notice type Future opportunity
Notice status Open
Approach to market date 15 February 2021
Contract location SW1H 0EU
Contract value £75,000,000 to £100,000,000
Publication date 21 December 2020

Good news today that the PHE study has finally confirmed what a multitude of studies from the US and the WHO have already established- recovering from cv19 affords the overwhelming majority of us immunity. A little reminder from contracts finder. This is what is there specifically for antibody tests alongside the awards for Abingdon Health, the lead consortium member for the RTC, for a total of £85 million. That one literally has their name on it but I know we've all seen it before. From www.contractsfinder.gov.ukAntibody Lateral Flow Test KitsDepartment of Health and Social Care (DHSC - Test and Trace)Notice type OpportunityNotice status OpenClosing 21 January 2021, 12amContract location LS2 7UBContract value £30,000,000 to £100,000,000Publication date 21 December 2020 Owing to the developing nature of our response to COVID-19 the Contracting Authority is establishing a Dynamic Purchasing System to facilitate the procurement of Lateral Flow Testing Devices for COVID-19 Antibodies. Owing to the developing nature of our response to COVID-19 the Contracting Authority is establishing a Dynamic Purchasing System to facilitate the procurement of Testing Kits, technologies or Devices for the detection, analysis or monitoring of COVID-19 Antibodies. Suppliers can register interest at http://health.atamis.co.ukGLA.