Avacta (AVCT ) said today that it had decided to "pause" sales of its RLFT, since it was (after further laboratory analysis) found to be less accurate at detecting the Omicron variant at lower viral loads.
Sure this is clearly a temporary setback. However, COVID testing still remains a long-term opportunity for Avacta, and it is already putting its scientists to work on a next generation antigen test that will be as resilient as possible to any future mutations.
The shares reacted negatively to the news with shares down more than 20% in early trading, despite most analysts not having any LFT sales in their forecasts.