Novacyt, a healthcare company specializing in clinical diagnostics, said on Monday the British government had started on orders for its product that is aimed at carrying out tests on the coronavirus that has killed thousands across the world.
The company said that the Public Health England body had made orders initially for eight hospitals to provide stocks for four weeks of planned testing.
The total value of the initial purchase is approximately 1.0 million pounds ($1.24 million), which Novacyt said was its single largest order to date for its coronavirus test.
"We welcome Public Health England’s decision to use our COVID-19 test in the UK and I am delighted to see that Novacyt will now be supporting one of its home markets during these challenging times," said Novacyt CEO Graham Mullis.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, editing by Louise Heavens)
