Novacyt shoots to stock market stardom after developing diagnostic test for Covid-19

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AIM-listed biotechnology firm Novacyt shoots to stock market stardom after developing diagnostic test for Covid-19

By Daily Mail City & Finance Reporter

Published: | Updated:

Few amateur traders had heard of Novacyt at the start of the year. 

But the AIM-listed biotechnology firm has shot to stock market stardom after it rapidly developed a research-use only and then a diagnostic test for Covid-19. 

The tests were designed at its Primerdesign unit in Southampton, which Paris-based Novacyt bought for £12.4m in 2016. 

It is selling the tests to Public Health England and has won approval for sale in multiple countries, including the US, France and Thailand. In late March it had sold £18m worth of tests – it is now making 4m a month and will ramp that up to 8m in three months’ time. 

It is one of the most viewed shares on online trading platforms and its price has rocketed from 13 per cent at the start of the year to a peak of 491p on Tuesday. 

But its stock has been volatile – there have been sharp drops as well as spikes. 

Shares in Novacyt have lost more than 10 per cent of their value this week after an upbeat manufacturing update. 

The company has said there will be a period of ‘sustained, significant demand’ for its sought-after tests – but any huge surge prompts questions about whether or not the peak has passed. 

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