Last checked at 27 Apr 2020 07:00
Novacyt S.A.
("Novacyt" or the "Company")
Contract with UK Department of Health and Social Care for supply of COVID-19 tests
Paris, France and Camberley, UK - 27 April 2020 - Novacyt (EURONEXT GROWTH: ALNOV; AIM: NCYT), an international specialist in clinical diagnostics, announces it has signed a supply contract with the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for its COVID-19 (CE IVD) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, developed by Primerdesign, the Company's molecular diagnostics division based in the UK.
Under the terms of the agreement, Novacyt will supply its COVID-19 test to the DHSC for an initial term of six months, starting from 4 May 2020. Novacyt has initially committed to supply 288,000 tests per week to the DHSC for use in the NHS, with the option to expand the agreement.
This partnership with the DHSC reinforces Novacyt's existing support of the UK government's five pillar plan to increase testing for COVID-19. The contract is in addition to the Company's collaboration with AstraZeneca, GSK and the University of Cambridge, announced on 8 April 2020, where Novacyt is committed to ensure an effective workflow process within the facility for COVID-19 testing, as well as provide its COVID-19 test to generate results data.
Graham Mullis, Chief Executive Officer of Novacyt, commented:
"Novacyt is committed to fighting the global COVID-19 pandemic. This partnership with the UK's Department of Health and Social Care reinforces Novacyt's position as a leading supplier of COVID-19 tests to the NHS."
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014.
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Contacts
Novacyt SA
Graham Mullis, Chief Executive Officer
Anthony Dyer, Chief Financial Officer
+44 (0)1276 600081
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
Matthew Johnson / Charlie Bouverat (Corporate Finance)
Vadim Alexandre / Rob Rees (Corporate Broking)
+44 (0)20 3470 0470
FTI Consulting (International)
Victoria Foster Mitchell / Mary Whittow
+44 (0)20 3727 1000
victoria.fostermitchell@fticonsulting.com / mary.whittow@fticonsulting.com
FTI Consulting (France)
Arnaud de Cheffontaines
+33 (0)147 03 69 47
arnaud.decheffontaines@fticonsulting.com
About Novacyt Group
The Novacyt Group is an international diagnostics business generating an increasing portfolio of in vitro and molecular diagnostic tests. Its core strengths lie in diagnostics product development, commercialisation, contract design and manufacturing. The Company's lead business units comprise of Primerdesign and Lab21 Products, supplying an extensive range of high-quality assays and reagents worldwide. The Group directly serves microbiology, haematology and serology markets as do its global partners, which include major corporates.
For more information please refer to the website: www.novacyt.com
About COVID-19
Researchers at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and their collaborators have sequenced the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pathogen from patient samples and have found it to be genetically distinct from the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus that caused an epidemic in 2002 and 2003, as well as from the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus that was detected in 2012.