Belfast-based respiratory diagnostics firm, ProAxsis has signed a licensing agreement with AstraZeneca, the global biopharmaceutical company and manufacturer of the Covid-19 vaccine.
ProAxsis will take responsibility for completing the validation and global commercialisation of a test for Covid-19 antibodies, which will be developed by an internal research team at AstraZeneca.
The investigative procedure - medically known as a serology ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), will test people's blood for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus associated with Covid).
In return for providing access to the required intellectual property and technical know-how, AstraZeneca will receive an undisclosed royalty fee on future Global net sales of the assay.
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Dr David Ribeiro, CEO of ProAxsis, commented: “We’re excited to be involved with this assay to support such a key area of global healthcare need. The research team at AstraZeneca have already completed significant optimisation and validation work, which has demonstrated the assay’s high potential sensitivity and specificity of detecting SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. ProAxsis will extend this work to support the identification of people who have raised antibodies against this challenging virus.”
Ruth March, Senior Vice President of Precision Medicine at AstraZeneca added: “The development of this serology ELISA by our team is another example of AstraZeneca’s comprehensive response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This highly sensitive and specific blood test makes use of simple and convenient fingerstick sample collection that will be well suited to large scale deployment and has the potential to play an important role in antibody analyses in large populations.”
Any enquiries concerning ProAxsis’ work in respiratory diagnostics can be directed to info@proaxsis.com.
