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Scientists are aiming to have a Covid-19 antigen test – which can identify whether people have had the virus – ready within three months.
A consortium of researchers striving to develop a test is working to a three-month timescale to have a test ready for mass production.
It comes after a team at Oxford University identified an antigen that is being used as “the basis of the test”, Dr Mario Gualano, chief executive of BBI Solutions, which is part of the consortium, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He said:
"So, as a consortium where we’re pulling together the various components of a test. I think the analogy you would use probably is building a car, and in order to do that successfully you have to have all the individual components working very well in their own right, but also crucially making sure that they all work well together in order to deliver the required performance.
And without oversimplifying matters, I think in this case we see the antigen is really the engine of the test and we’ll build the rest of the capability around that.”
On the antigen identified by the Oxford team, he added: “Well, we believe the antigen is good at picking up convalescent sera, i.e. serum from people that have been identified and are therefore are assumed to have some sort of immunity. It typically takes nine to 12 months to develop a test like this and we’re looking at really driving that development in a much shorter time frame.”
He said it was difficult to put a specific timeline on the availability of the test, but added: “We’re certainly working to a timeline of three months, and hoping that we would be able to develop the test and have something available to go into production at that time.”
A consortium of researchers striving to develop a test is working to a three-month timescale to have a test ready for mass production.
It comes after a team at Oxford University identified an antigen that is being used as “the basis of the test”, Dr Mario Gualano, chief executive of BBI Solutions, which is part of the consortium, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He said:
"So, as a consortium where we’re pulling together the various components of a test. I think the analogy you would use probably is building a car, and in order to do that successfully you have to have all the individual components working very well in their own right, but also crucially making sure that they all work well together in order to deliver the required performance.
And without oversimplifying matters, I think in this case we see the antigen is really the engine of the test and we’ll build the rest of the capability around that.”
On the antigen identified by the Oxford team, he added: “Well, we believe the antigen is good at picking up convalescent sera, i.e. serum from people that have been identified and are therefore are assumed to have some sort of immunity. It typically takes nine to 12 months to develop a test like this and we’re looking at really driving that development in a much shorter time frame.”
He said it was difficult to put a specific timeline on the availability of the test, but added: “We’re certainly working to a timeline of three months, and hoping that we would be able to develop the test and have something available to go into production at that time.”
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