UK Government contract for UK-RTC

RNS Number : 2886B

Omega Diagnostics Group PLC

06 October 2020

 

OMEGA DIAGNOSTICS GROUP PLC

("Omega" or the "Company" or the "Group")

UK Government contract for UK-Rapid Test Consortium

Successful independent evaluation from PHE for COVID-19 lateral flow antibody test

Omega (AIM: ODX), the medical diagnostics company focused on CD4, infectious diseases and food intolerance, notes the press release issued today by the UK Rapid Test Consortium ("UK-RTC"), of which Omega is a partner, on the UK Government's first order for one million COVID-19 lateral flow antibody tests (the "AbC-19™ Rapid test").

This first order is part of the UK Government's plans to roll-out COVID-19 surveillance studies to help build a picture of how the virus has spread across the country.

The AbC-19™ Rapid test uses a small drop of blood from a finger-prick, and shows results in 20 minutes, without the need for a patient sample to be sent to a laboratory. The test is currently CE-Marked for professional use and can be administered by healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists and healthcare workers, at the point-of-care. The UK-RTC are seeking approval from the MHRA for self-test use.

The UK-RTC members are in the final stages of formalising an agreement for the supply of goods from members to Abingdon Health, following the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed in April 2020. Omega expects to manufacture approximately 175,000 of these first 1 million tests but over the term of this supply agreement, Omega will manufacture not less than 25% of the demand from total orders placed, either from the UK Government or, where allowed, third party customers.  

The UK-RTC is reproduced in full at the end of this statement.

The Company expects to provide a trading update for the six months to 30 September 2020 in late October 2020.

Colin King, CEO of Omega, commented: "I am delighted that the UK-RTC has now received its first contract from the UK Government for our COVID-19 lateral flow antibody test. We believe that the AbC-19™ Rapid test has the immediate opportunity to allow the UK to build a swift and clear picture of how the virus has spread throughout the population. It also has the potential to be deployed in conjunction with vaccine candidates to help assess initial immune responses."

The information communicated in this announcement is inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

Contacts: 

Omega Diagnostics Group PLC	Tel: [phone]
Bill Rhodes, Interim Non-Executive Chairman Colin King, Chief Executive	www.omegadiagnostics.com
Kieron Harbinson, Group Finance Director
finnCap Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Geoff Nash/Teddy Whiley (Corporate Finance)
Alice Lane (ECM)
Walbrook PR Limited	Tel: [phone] or [e-mail]
Paul McManus	Mob: [phone]
Lianne Cawthorne	Mob: [phone]

Press Release from the UK-RTC (issued on 6 October 2020)

UK-RTC AbC-19^TM Rapid Test receives successful independent PHE evaluation

The UK Government has entered into a contract with Abingdon Health, on behalf of the UK-Rapid Test Consortium ("UK-RTC"), for the supply of the AbC-19^TM Rapid Antibody tests. As part of the contract the UK Government has placed its first order for one million COVID-19 rapid antibody tests.

This follows an independent evaluation commissioned by the UK government of the AbC-19^TM Rapid Antibody test, which will be published in full in due course by PHE, after peer review. 

The " AbC-19^TM Rapid Test", uses a small drop of blood from a finger-prick, and shows results in 20 minutes, without the need to go to a specialised laboratory. 

The test can be administered by healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists and healthcare workers, at the point-of-care.  It has already received the "CE mark", which indicates health and safety conformity for goods sold in the UK and EU.   

The test will make it possible to build a swift and clear picture of how the virus has spread throughout the UK population. 

It will also be able to help establish the effectiveness of any vaccine which provides protection by creating new antibodies.  This information will be critical to managing current and future outbreaks of COVID-19.

Mass production is already under way. The antibody test will be rolled out under the government's COVID-19 surveillance studies to help build a picture of how the virus has spread across the country. Surveillance studies are vital to develop our understanding of how antibodies work.

The UK Government helped to set up the UK Rapid Test Consortium and invested in the development of the tests.

Health Minister Lord Bethell said: "This home antibody test developed by our outstanding British scientists and researchers at the UK Rapid Test Consortium will provide critical insight into how the infection has spread, growing our understanding of coronavirus so that we can better respond to it."

The test detects IgG antibodies to "full trimeric spike proteins" of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  This means the test detects those antibodies which interfere with the virus's ability to enter the human cells.

An extensive validation study performed by Ulster University involving over 1000 participant blood samples is currently under peer review for publication.

About the UK-RTC

The UK-Rapid Test Consortium was set up by Abingdon Health to bring together scientists and medical technology manufacturers to be able to deliver millions of test kits as quickly as possible.  By working together, some of the UK's leading medical technology companies will deliver more volume more quickly to help fight Covid-19.

The UK Government supported the setup of the UK Rapid Testing Consortium and invested in the development of the rapid antibody tests.

The UK-RTC comprises Abingdon Health, the University of Oxford, Omega Diagnostics, BBI Solutions and CIGA Healthcare.

 

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