Corporate News

Omega (AIM: ODX), the medical diagnostics company focused on CD4, infectious diseases and food intolerance, provides the following update on its UK Government manufacturing contract.

Update on UK Government manufacturing contract

The Company remains in regular dialogue with the Department of Health and Social Care ("DHSC") to provide manufacturing capacity for COVID-19 lateral flow antigen tests utilising the key pieces of manufacturing equipment loaned by the UK Government for that purpose. Omega is still waiting for confirmation on which test it will be required to manufacture.  Omega is not in control of this process and this is taking longer than originally expected but the Company will provide a further update once a test is confirmed. The ability to supply tests that are produced within the UK remains a key priority for the DHSC and to that end the DHSC have facilitated initial commercial discussions between Omega and potential partner companies with lateral flow antigen tests to potentially provide UK manufacturing services.

In the meantime, Omega is currently supporting the Government with additional cassetting and pouching services for other COVID-19 antigen lateral flow tests that are being deployed in the UK.

The Company can also confirm that as part of the UK Government manufacturing contract announced on 11 February 2021 it has received cash Preproduction Payments totalling £2.5m (excluding VAT), with £2.0m of this cash payment received after the year ended 31 March 2021. It is expected that an amount per test, sufficient to recover the Preproduction Payment, will be deducted until such time as the funds have been repaid.

Colin King, CEO of Omega, commented:  

“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. Obviously as soon as this is confirmed we will update shareholders.”

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