Billionaire Boohoo boss Mahmud Kamani has teamed up with a Cambridge-based biotech firm developing a 10-minute home saliva test for COVID-19. Designed to give a result in 10 minutes, the simple test strip, which is yet to be licensed, has been described as being ‘like a pregnancy test’ but for saliva.
The current NHS home testing swabs have to be used on the tonsils and nostrils and can cause discomfort. They also have to be sent to labs for results. There have also been issues with some tests sent away to labs – with data from tests carried out at drive-throughs and other privately-run stations said to be missing due to a ‘log jam’.
Avacta, the Cambridge-based firm developing the antigen test have struck an exclusive sales and distribution deal with Medusa19, newly-established by Boohoo.com founders Mr Kamani and Richard Hughes, former non-executive director of the online fashion brand.
Avacta Group Plc (LON:AVCT) offers reagents and therapeutics based on Affimer technology for diagnostic and research applications in the United Kingdom. The company’s custom Affimer products are also used in drugs and biomarkers discovery in biotech research and development.
