Shares in Abingdon Health PLC (AIM:ABDX) rose 14% to 8.24p after the AIM-listed rapid diagnostic test developer announced contracts worth approximately £4.8 million to develop and scale up the manufacture of multiplex lateral flow assay systems for a US-based customer.
Multiplex lateral flow assays are rapid diagnostic tests capable of measuring multiple biological markers simultaneously from a single human sample, a more complex undertaking than standard single-marker tests.
The contracts, which cover full programme management, regulatory services, and analytical and clinical performance work, will be delivered over approximately 27 months and could extend further, including the potential appointment of Abingdon Health as legal manufacturer.
The programmes will draw on the group's facilities in York and Madison, Wisconsin, as well as its regulatory services subsidiaries CS Lifesciences and IVDeology, and its analytical services unit Abingdon Analytical in Doncaster.
Executive chairman Chris Hand said the contracts reinforced Abingdon Health's position as the leading provider of end-to-end lateral flow test development and programme management for "complex multiplex quantitative test devices."
The awards validate Abingdon Health's contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) model, which spans development, regulatory approvals and manufacture across multiple territories.