‘Excellent progress’ to develop rapid Covid-19 test

Life sciences business Avacta has reported another milestone in its effort to devise a scalable manufacturing process for a lateral flow SARS-CoV-2 antigen test being carried out with BBI Solutions, 

Wetherby-based Avacta is developing several coronavirus tests using Affimer binders that are highly specific to the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19.

The business says a highly scalable test device using readily available components and routine manufacturing processes has now been shown to have a sensitivity for coronavirus spike protein in laboratory samples.

In preparation for clinical validation of the test, Avacta is working on both saliva and anterior nasal swab samples.

Anterior nasal swabs sample the easily accessible parts of the nose and are therefore painless and straightforward to administer.

Avacta says it will continue to develop both sampling methods in parallel in order to bring high performance COVID-19 tests to market quickly to suit a range of use cases.

 The performance of the test with clinical samples will now be evaluated as a precursor to a much larger clinical study with Covid-19 patients to determine the clinical sensitivity of the test.

BBI Solutions is working to finalise and validate the manufacturing process so the Group can carry out a full clinical validation on the final product to support the regulatory approval process.

Alastair Smith, chief executive officer of Avacta Group, said: “I am delighted with the excellent progress that has been made with BBI Solutions in developing a scalable version of a lateral flow rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigen test with sensitivity in the expected clinical range for spike protein.

“BBI Solutions is an excellent development partner and I am particularly pleased at how well the teams are working together to shorten the timeline as much as possible without compromising quality.

“In addition to the excellent progress made with the lateral flow antigen test, we are also currently carrying out a clinical evaluation of the BAMSTM assay at several sites in the UK.

“We are in discussions with commercial partners to establish the route to market for a CE marked BAMS COVID-19 test that can be deployed in hospitals in the UK and Europe.”

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