Yorkshire firm launches 20 minute Covid antibody blood tests

The York-based firm said the new test will allow people to monitor their own antibody status pre-vaccination, post vaccination and following infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Abingdon said the new test has been CE marked specifically for self-testing. The test uses a fraction of a drop of finger-prick blood with results in 20 minutes.

The firm said it will be particularly useful as populations worldwide get vaccinated in order to monitor the effectiveness of an individual’s immunity status. This will help to monitor who should receive booster vaccinations. Abingdon will be the exclusive worldwide manufacturer for the test.

The test has successfully completed technical transfer to manufacture following a pilot production run and is now in full manufacture at Abingdon’s expanded manufacturing facilities at York and Doncaster.

Technical transfer is the process whereby three or more independent production runs are manufactured, at increasing scale, and validated to illustrate the product is suitable for mass manufacture.

The launch of the BioSure Covid-19 IgG Antibody Self Test is part of an exclusive manufacturing agreement with BioSure, which specialises in rapid in-vitro diagnostic tests.

Chris Yates, CEO of Abingdon Health, said: “We are delighted that BioSure have launched their product and equally happy to be their manufacturing partner.

"For individuals to be able to monitor their own antibody status at home is a great step in the management of Covid-19."

"Our own AbC-19 assay will complement this product and we expect the AbC-19 to gain additional utility in semi-quantitative format as recently announced. BioSure also distributes our AbC-19 test which is CE marked for professional use."

Mr Yates said the new initiative will allow Abingdon to build on its long-term collaboration with the BioSure team. Abingdon already manufactures BioSure's HIV self-test in the same format as this new test.

"We are committed to supporting the deployment of these much-needed lateral flow tests to the UK and international markets," he added.

"This is the first of several products we have previously noted to be going through the technical transfer process with others for Covid antigen and non-Covid applications to follow and which we expect to contribute to contract manufacturing revenue growth.”

Brigette Bard, CEO of BioSure, said: “We are delighted to be continuing the expansion of our product range with Abingdon Health.

"With our world-first CE marked Covid-19 antibody self-test, we need a world class manufacturing partner for supply into multiple markets. I would personally like to thank all of the team for their incredible work.”