By Kristy Dorsey
MEDICAL testing specialist Omega Diagnostics, which has been in the news this month for its work on Covid-19, has signed a deal to supply hundreds of thousands of its HIV tests into lower and middleincome countries around the world.
The agreement with global health organisation Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) will accelerate distribution of Omega’s Visitect CD4 into what the World Bank defines as “eligible countries”. The agreement runs until December 2021, and will lead to the distribution of up to 500,000 CD4 tests.
With support from international development agency Unitaid, CHAI will place an initial order for 100,000 CD4 kits within the next fortnight. Delivery will depend on demand being confirmed by certain eligible countries by the end of June, with shipment to follow thereafter.
READ MORE: Omega Diagnostics surges as virus testing plans progress
CD4 tests are used to assess the progression of HIV and prioritise patients at risk of opportunistic infections. Omega’s kit is currently the only hand-held test of its kind that can provide a reading at the point of care to people living in remote areas, or those where few laboratory resources are available.
“We are pleased that Omega has been able to enter into this supply agreement with CHAI, who have been very supportive towards accelerating the availability of our Visitect CD4 Advanced Disease,” chief executive Colin King said.
“This test will help support the healthcare needs of the many people in those countries that are most in need.”
The CD4 tests are made at Omega’s headquarters in Alva, where the company is also looking at ways to increase capacity for the production of at-home tests for Covid-19 antibodies. That diagnostic is currently in development by the UK Rapid Test Consortium (RTC), which includes Omega, Oxford University, BBI Solutions and CIGA Healthcare, and is led by Abingdon Health.
READ MORE: Omega Diagnostics gears up for mass roll-out of virus testing kits
Omega is also involved in a second coronavirus partnership with Bedfordshire-based Mologic, under which the Scottish company will produce Mologic’s test kits at its facility in Littleport, Cambridgeshire.
The pair announced earlier this week that their lab-based test has received the CE Mark required for sales into Europe. They are now awaiting validation from Public Health England and NHS Scotland before ramping up production of as many as 46,000 tests per day. A decision is expected imminently
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article