Omega Diagnostics (AIM:ODX ) shares rose 11.59% to 91.5p after published report
The medical diagnostics company focused on CD4, infectious diseases and food intolerance, noted the preliminary report of an independent evaluation of Abc-19TM by Ulster University.
The independent report compares three commercially available immunoassays to evaluate performance metrics for the AbC-19 lateral flow test, which is developed by the UK-RTC.
It said the report notes the lack of a well-accepted gold standard assay against which to measure any newly developed immunoassay designed to detect antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.
Omega has been working in partnership with the UK Rapid Test Consortium (“UK-RTC”) in order to develop its COVID-19 lateral flow antibody test known as the AbC-19™ Rapid test.
Diagnostics firm, Abingdon Health Limited, a lead partner of the UK-RTC, confirmed at the end of July 2020 that it had CE-Marked the AbC-19™ Rapid test for professional use.
“Omega is focused on ensuring it completes the technical transfer in a timely manner and plays its part in the fight against this pandemic,” Colin King, CEO of Omega said at the time.
You can find the published preliminary report here and more on the AbC019 test here.
Arcontech Group (AIM:ARC ) shares rose 11.53% to 164.5p following client win
Arcontech, a prodiver of products and services for real-time financial market data processing and trading, signed a new Tier 1 bank client for its MVCS (multi-vendor contribution system).
The group highlighted that a multi-vendor contribution system is one that enables those that create market data content, whether real-time instrument prices, auction results or policy statements, to be contributed to multiple vendors and internal consumers at the same time.
Arcontech said anticipated revenues are not expected to be material initially but it is the start of an important relationship with the top global institution whose name remains undisclosed.
"We most frequently provide our software to enable contributions to be made to Bloomberg and Refinitiv, however, we are increasingly receiving requests to send client data to other vendors and venues like Factset and Tradeweb along with a need to repurpose data internally for example into risk management systems or use by other desks,” said CEO, Matthew Jeffs.
He added, “More generally, regulatory pressures coupled with the need to reduce risk, are encouraging financial market participants to ensure any data sent to the market is managed and recorded for audit.”
The company highlighted that discussions between the group and the new client commenced after the unnamed bank indicated its desire to contribute real-time prices to Factset.
Pires Investments (AIM:PIRI ) shares ticked up 6.67% to 4.8p with new CV-19 product
The investment company told investors this morning that Ambisense, a group in which it holds through its investment in Sure Valley Ventures, has launched AmbiAir, a solution designed to help manage, assess, and predict the COVID-19 risk in commercial and public buildings.
Ambisense, which provides sensors and an analysis platform to allow real-time gas and environmental monitoring, has now entered the air quality market with this latest launch.
‘By increasing building ventilation, and combining it with measures such as social distancing, it is possible to decrease the COVID-19 risk in public spaces,’ the technology group noted.
Ambisense has told investors that previous studies have shown that the danger of exposure to COVID-19 is significantly reduced when the level of CO2 is below 600 parts per million, relative humidity is between 40-60%, and there are no or very minimal levels of PM2.5.
The company said its AmbiAir range will work by combining multiple tools and techniques useful to air quality professionals ‘to understand the behaviour of air quality pollutants.’
"Ambisense's launch of AmbiAir, a solution designed to help manage, assess, and predict the COVID-19 risk in commercial and public buildings, is particularly timely considering the challenges the global pandemic continues to bring to everyday living,” said Peter Redmond, Chairman of Pires.
Redmond noted that the solution has been launched at a time “of significant demand.”
Scancell Holdings (AIM:SCLP ) shares rose 3.58% to 17.35p
Scancell Holdings jumped this morning after it was unveiled that Cobra Biologics will manufacture the company’s COVID-19 vaccine ready for a phase I clinical trial.
The biopharmaceutical firm said the agreement covers production of plasmid DNA needed to generate the DNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.
Scancell said the production of plasmid DNA represents ‘a crucial development’ in producing a COVID-19 vaccine for use in the phase I trial, which is named COVIDITY because it can be produced at scale and to therapeutic-grade standards.
The new vaccine, which will targets SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and spike proteins, could provide long lasting immunity against COVID-19 by generating protection not only against this strain, but also against new strains of coronavirus that may arise in the future.
The project is funded by an Innovate UK grant awarded to the consortium between Scancell, the University of Nottingham and Trent University, as previously announced in August 2020.
The company said that Cobra’s ‘long-established plasmid production platform along with in-house expertise will ensure the highest quality plasmids are produced for COVIDITY.’
The initial stages of GMP manufacture are scheduled to start imminently, the group noted.
OptiBiotix Health (AIM:OPTI ) shares rose 6.36% to 58.5p with New Drug authorisation
The life sciences business has received approval to start human clinical trials for a potential treatment for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) which contains the company’s LPLDL probiotic.
The approval was awarded to Seed Health, a partner of OptiBiotix since May 2018.
The acceptance, which was granted by the US Food and Drug Administration under an investigational new drug application, will allow DS-01 to go into phase II clinical trials.
The trial will be a placebo-controlled study to assess the role of the gut microbiome in patients with IBS as well as the impact of the drug candidate on intestinal microbial communities.
This FDA authorisation extends the opportunity into new drug and application areas for IBS.