Avacta signs Covid-19 test distribution deal with Boohoo founders

Avacta Group has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Medusa19 for direct-to-consumer sales of a saliva-based rapid test for the Covid-19 antigen, it announced on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm had recently announced a partnership with Cytiva, formerly GE Healthcare Life Sciences, to develop a saliva-based rapid antigen test to indicate whether a person has the Covid-19 infection, which would be in the form of a simple test strip.

It said the test was intended to give a result within minutes, and would be for use by both healthcare professionals and consumers.

The group said on Wednesday that it has agreed an exclusive distribution agreement with Medusa19 for the supply of the rapid test direct to consumers globally, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.

Medusa19 has been established by Richard Hughes and Mahmud Kamani, both founder shareholders of Boohoo.com and shareholders of Avacta, to build a global consumer self-testing business.

Avacta said Medusa19's initial focus would be on Covid-19 home testing, with the business currently investing in global e-commerce, logistics and customer support infrastructure in preparation for Avacta's Covid-19 test launch.

Medusa19 would also have non-exclusive rights to supply the tests to businesses for workforce testing, with the distribution agreement including a profit-sharing arrangement.

The company said the global demand for rapid antigen tests, which would be “critical” to lockdown exit strategies in order to get healthy, non-contagious people back to work, could be “many millions” of tests per month.

There would also be an ongoing need for several years for the type of testing as the disease recurred, Avacta said.

The company recently announced that it had “rapidly developed” Affimer reagents that detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein, and it had now supplied those to Cytiva for test development.

It said it was intending to establish further rapid test strip manufacturing partners in anticipation of a “very high demand” for the Covid-19 antigen test.

“I am delighted to have entered into this distribution agreement with Medusa19, which will provide a global route direct-to-consumer for Avacta's rapid point-of-care Covid-19 antigen test,” said chief executive officer Dr Alastair Smith.

“The potential size of this market, and the expected demand from businesses for workforce screening, is substantial.”

Dr Smith said the “significant” investment that Medusa19 was making, in conjunction with the track records of the Medusa19 team, gave him “great confidence” in the rapid growth of direct-to-consumer sales of the Avacta Covid-19 test across the United Kingdom, European Union and the United States, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.

“I expect the commercial impact of this partnership to be very significant to Avacta.

“I am looking forward to working with the Medusa19 team on commercialising the Covid-19 rapid test and other consumer diagnostic tests that Avacta develops in the future, in line with the group's Affimer diagnostics strategy.”

At 1015 BST, shares in Avacta Group were down 2.43% at 142.94p.