Yorkshire led consortium reaches milestone in antibody test

The UK-Rapid Test Consortium, a group of UK scientists and expert medical manufacturers led by York-based Abingdon Health, has reached a milestone for its Covid-19 antibody test.

The test which is being developed for the UK Department of Health and Social Care is now ready to begin preparation for mass production.

The consortium, which was set up in April to develop and manufacture millions of Covid-19 antibody tests has reached this milestone at a rapid rate – it would usually take ten months to reach this point.

Abingdon Health CEO, Chris Yates said: “This has been a tremendous company-wide effort at Abingdon Health to achieve this milestone in such a short space of time.”

Before the kit is manufactured in large volumes, a scale-up of production processes and additional clinical testing and validation, and regulatory approval are required.

Yates added: “The results of our initial trials give us great confidence that our test will meet the regulatory thresholds defined by MHRA for a Covid-19 antibody testing kit. We then look forward to moving to mass production.”