UK Edition
British biotech company Oxford Nanopore has received fresh backing from Abu Dhabi's International Holdings as it accelerates its coronavirus testing work.
The Oxford University spin-out raised £84m of new capital from existing and new investors including IHC and railway penion manager RPMI Railpen, taking the total it has raised this year to £162m.
IP Group, one of its early backers, said the funds would support the "rapid acceleration" of Oxford Nanopore's commercial and manufacturing operations.
The company recently developed a new type of test for Covid-19 which could process tens of thousands of results a day and allow entire groups of people to be tested for the virus. These LamPORE tests were touted as a way to help pick up asymptomatic cases, as organisations such as police forces or schools could be tested regularly.
A study last week by scientists at University College London showed that more than eight in ten people who tested positive for coronavirus showed none of the main symptoms at the time they took the test, something scientists warned could mean many people infected were not self-isolating.
Oxford Nanopore said the LamPORE test had now received safety certification to be used to detect Covid-19 in the European economic area, and that initial roll-outs of the tests were taking place in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
It has partnered with the UK Government to supply an initial 450,000 of the tests, potentially ramping up to millions of tests per month.
The company had once been heavily backed by Neil Woodford, the fallen fund manager. It has also previously received investment from the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, China Construction Bank and Australian fund Hostplus.