‘As luck would have it, a pandemic began’

OPTIGENE is a small medical diagnostic firm based in a single-storey industrial unit in Horsham, West Sussex.

But now, the Mail reveals today, it has hit the big time: a £387million contract with the Government to build and supply 600 Genii HT coronavirus testing machines, together with enough chemicals and kits for 90 million tests.

‘ We launched our new machine in January,’ chief executive Michael Andreou said. ‘And then, as luck would have it, a global pandemic began.’

He added: ‘This is a massive challenge for us. It needs everyone to pull together, and components from all over to get these instruments delivered. But we are doing everything possible to get this to happen.’

The company’s machine tells whether someone is positive or negative in 20 minutes, and relies on software to analyse its results. This means that, unlike most lab-based tests, it does not need to be operated by an expert virologist.

Mr Andreou, 59, said that when the pandemic began to spread, he had no intention of getting involved. But then China released the virus’s genome, and he realised he could adapt the Genii to identify Covid.

OptiGene – which operates from the same base as sister company OptiSense, a specialist in sensor systems – tested the machine at Basingstoke hospital. ‘The record for a patient with Covid symptoms turning up at A&E, getting tested and then being admitted to a Covid ward was 20 minutes,’ he said.

In April, Mr Andreou was contacted by the Cabinet Office. ‘I was the world’s worst salesman,’ he said. ‘We never went looking for this contract. You’ve seen from our accounts our normal level of business.’