Avacta Group’s (LON: AVCT) share price is up on Monday after the pharmaceutical company said its AffiDX SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen lateral flow test detects the dominant new coronavirus variants.
The two new dominant variants are known as the B117 and D614G strains.
The new virus variants are said to be more infectious and rapidly transmissible with the potential to become the dominant strains.
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Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
Early on in the pandemic, a variant referred to as D614G appeared, which rapidly became the dominant strain globally. The B117 variant, which was first found in Kent, is prevalent in the UK, has been found in more than 50 countries and, according to Professor Sharon Peacock from Public Health and Microbiology at Cambridge University, it is likely to become the next dominant strain globally.
Avacta said it has carried out analytical tests with the spike proteins isolated from both B117 and D614G and confirmed its AffiDX SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen lateral flow test detects both, along with the original strain.
“We will continue to monitor the performance of the Affimer reagents with future dominant variants as they become available to us. Since the Affimer reagents we use in Avacta’s range of SARS-CoV-2 tests do not bind in the region of the spike protein where the dominant mutations appear, we do not anticipate that the performance of the tests will be affected,” commented Dr Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta Group.
Avacta’s share price has risen over 6.6% to 212p following the announcement.
Should you invest in Avacta Group shares? Avacta Group shares are traded on the AIM market of the London stock exchange (the alternative investment market) which is the sub market specifically for smaller companies. AIM stocks are attractive to investors as they have tax advantages and smaller companies have the potential to benefit from rapid growth. But are Avacta Group shares the best buy? Our stock market analysts regularly review the market and share their picks for high growth companies
