Oxford Nanopore owner IP and Versarien stocks surge as Covid-19 battle steps up
Investors have piled into two London-listed groups which are battling the spread of coronavirus.
FTSE 250 firm IP Group said one of the companies in its portfolio, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, is working with the Department of Health to roll out its Lampore test.
NHS labs will gain access to 450,000 of the Covid-19 tests and potentially use its tech to screen frontline staff who are asymptomatic for the virus under the terms of the deal.
Intellectual property commercialisation company IP owns 15.8% of Oxford Nanopore, which is was spun out of the city’s university in 2005, and its shares rose 11% to 74p.
Alan Aubrey, chief executive of IP Group, said: "The roll-out of LamPORE, the company's first diagnostic assay, is a significant development for Oxford Nanopore and in the battle against COVID-19 in the UK. We are proud that Oxford Nanopore has been supplying countries all over the world with sequencing capability throughout this pandemic to help support the response to the crisis."
Separately, AIM-listed engineering group Versarien saw its stock increase 10% to 45p on launching a graphene-enhanced protective facemask.
It has received orders for 120,000 of its masks which minimise the spread of the virus. Manufactured in China, the company said the mask orders were for 100,000 units from a "leading unversity" and "20,000 ordered by a UK electrical and mechanical servicing and repairs business".
Neill Ricketts, chief executive of Versarien, said: “We have taken great encouragement from the initial level of interest and are already in discussions with a number of other potential customers. Importantly, through our partner, we also have the capacity to fulfil much larger numbers of product orders going forward."
The virus crisis has seen a clutch of small biotech stocks surge in value as the hunt to stem the virus continues.
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