Shares of Omega Diagnostics (LON: ODX) are trading lower on Monday after it said it is still awaiting confirmation from the UK Government on which test it will be required to manufacture.
Omega remains in regular dialogue with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to provide manufacturing capacity for COVID-19 lateral flow antigen tests.
It will utilise key pieces of manufacturing equipment loaned by the UK Government to manufacture the tests, but the confirmation has taken longer than expected.
According to Omega, the ability to supply tests produced within the UK remains a key priority for the DHSC. As a result, the DHSC has facilitated initial commercial discussions between Omega and potential partner companies with lateral flow antigen tests to potentially provide UK manufacturing services.
While they await confirmation, the AIM-listed company supports the Government with additional cassetting and pouching services for other COVID-19 antigen lateral flow tests.
As part of the manufacturing contract announced with the UK Government in February, Omega has received cash preproduction payments totalling £2.5m. An amount per test, sufficient to recover the preproduction payment, will be deducted until the funds have been repaid.
“Whilst confirmation from the DHSC of which test to produce has taken longer than we had expected, we are confident that we have the capacity to produce significant volumes of tests once we receive the requisite confirmation from DHSC,” commented Colin King, CEO of Omega.
Omega Diagnostics' share price is currently down 2.38% at 61.50p.
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