Avacta up as it gets closer to production

AIM-listed drug developer Avacta Group (LON:AVCT) saw its share price increase by 7.16% to 137.70p (as of 15:45 BST) after it appointed BBI Solutions to manufacture its COVID-19 antigen test. Clinical validation work will be carried out soon using the initial pilot batches.

CEO Dr. Alastair Smith commented: “I am delighted to be working with BBI to manufacture the rapid COVID-19 test. BBI has been excellent to work with to define a highly compressed product development timeline that will allow us to get the product to market as quickly as possible.

“We anticipate very high demand for the COVID-19 rapid test and will be working with our preferred manufacturing partners at BBI to satisfy that demand. We are actively continuing our discussions with other manufacturing partners to ensure that we have access to additional manufacturing capacity to address the global need for SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing both now, and in the next few years.

“As we set out in the use of proceeds at the recent fund raising, we have now expanded our product development team with the appointment of an experienced in-vitro diagnostic Product Development Manager, and we are expanding the protein production facilities in order to meet the expected demand for Affimer proteins for the COVID-19 tests and future diagnostic tests in the pipeline.

“The diagnostics business has also been working at a rapid pace towards ISO13485 accreditation, which will streamline CE marking and other regulatory approval processes“.