REG - Abingdon Health PLC - Further re. Outcome of Judicial Review

Abingdon HealthAnnouncement

10/10/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 2437C  Abingdon Health PLC  10 October 2022

 

The 'Further re. Outcome of Judicial Review' announcement for Abingdon Health
plc released Friday, 7 October 2022 at 17:16 under RNS No 2415C has been
re-released in the interests of market clarity.

 

The announcement text is unchanged and is reproduced in full below.

 

 

Abingdon Health plc

("Abingdon Health" or "the Company")

 

Outcome of Judicial Review

 

All grounds were dismissed, including the claim of state aid, apparent bias
and national preference

Contract Award Decisions given to Abingdon were lawful and complied with the
principles of public law

 

York, U.K. 7 October 2022: Abingdon Health plc (AIM: ABDX), a leading
international developer and manufacturer of high quality, rapid diagnostic
tests, notes the judgement by Mr Justice Waksman in relation to the Judicial
Review proceedings initiated by the Good Law Project Limited ("GLP") against
the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care ("DHSC") in which Abingdon
Health is an interested party. Mr Justice Waksman has ruled in favour of the
DHSC on all grounds, including lack of state aid to Abingdon Health and
dismissed all claims brought by the GLP.

 

The judgement confirms that Contract Award Decisions by the DHSC, for the
development and manufacture of lateral flow test kits for COVID-19 antibodies
by Abingdon Health, were lawful and complied with the principles of public
law. All grounds brought by the GLP in this case were dismissed and, of
particular note to Abingdon Health plc, the claim of state aid was dismissed.

 

Abingdon Health has maintained throughout this process that the contracts were
awarded without apparent bias and national preference, and that the award of
contracts to Abingdon was a straightforward purchase of goods and services by
a public body from an established expert provider of lateral flow device
development and manufacturing services, on normal market terms.

 

Throughout the process the GLP made a number of disparaging statements and
unsubstantiated assertions about Abingdon Health that have been damaging to
the Company's employees, shareholders and other stakeholders. Correspondence
addressing these factual inaccuracies, as sent to the GLP in May 2021, is
available on the Company website
(https://www.abingdonhealth.com/app/uploads/2021/08/2021.05.04-Letter-to-Rook-Irwin-Sweeney-LLP-V4.pdf)
and covered the following areas:

 

§ Abingdon Health's longstanding expertise in the area of lateral flow test
development;

§ the financial security of the Company ahead of any Government contract
award;

§ the subjectiveness of any company being an "established operator" within
COVID-19 antibody testing in the early stages of the pandemic;

§ performance data relating to the AbC-19(TM) test and other evaluations
undertaken;

§ the formation of the UK Rapid Test Consortium ("UK-RTC") and the fact that
Abingdon Health's AbC-19(TM) test - a lateral flow assay for COVID-19
antibodies - was developed and manufactured without assistance from Professor
Sir John Bell;

§ prices of goods and services provided being at appropriate market price,
such that there was no state aid provided; and

§ unfounded allegations of WhatsApp messages between the Minister for Health
and Social Care and Abingdon employees.

 

In addition, a 'Detailed Grounds of Resistance' document was filed to the
court by Abingdon Health to ensure the factual inaccuracies referred to the
above were addressed and this document is also available on the Company
website
(https://www.abingdonhealth.com/app/uploads/2021/08/2021.07.12-DGR-Abingdon-final.pdf)
.

 

Abingdon Health fully supports both openness and accountability relating to
the award of public contracts; however, this particular case brought by the
GLP was comprehensively dismissed on all grounds. Despite the Company's best
efforts to cooperate and demonstrate to the GLP that there was no bias or
assistance in these contracts being awarded, and to illustrate the impressive
credentials and experience of the Company and its employees in lateral flow
test development and manufacture, facts and evidence were ignored, false
rumours were released to the media and, in the Board's opinion, the
proceedings continued long after they could have been halted.

 

The full judgement is available online:
https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/tcc/2022/2468
(https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/tcc/2022/2468)

 

Abingdon Health is an established lateral flow diagnostics company providing
contract service solutions across a range of sectors including infectious
disease, other clinical areas, animal health, plant pathogen and environmental
testing. Founded in 2008, Abingdon Health is a leading expert and knowledge
leader in the area of lateral flow test development and commercial
manufacture. The senior management team has over 150 years' combined
experience in the lateral flow testing market and the Company employs over 70
people across facilities in Yorkshire.

 

As a British company and a leader in the field of lateral flow testing,
Abingdon Health responded to the Government's request for healthcare industry
experts to pull together in a national and international emergency, and this
led to the formation of the UK-RTC, a consortium of UK diagnostic companies.
Abingdon developed, manufactured and, in the period between November 2020 and
January 2021, supplied lateral flow test kits for COVID-19 antibodies, that
were used by the DHSC.

 

The monies received under these contracts totalled £10.3m (including £5.4m
to cover reimbursement of stock and £0.2m in interest). This does not include
a final £1.5m cash payment from the DHSC, currently held under charge until
the outcome of the judicial review, which is now expected to be released,
bringing the total amount paid to Abingdon by the DHSC to £11.8m (all amounts
quoted exclude VAT).

 

Chris Yates, Chief Executive Officer of Abingdon Health plc, commented: "We
are, of course, pleased with this judgement, but extremely disappointed that
Abingdon's reputation and good standing has been called into question by the
GLP, and their unsubstantiated accusations were broadcast widely by them
through various media outlets.

 

"At Abingdon Health we answered the Government's call for leading UK life
sciences companies to respond quickly with solutions to help during the height
of the pandemic. We did the right thing. In the end we have been caught in a
political cross-fire. We fully support transparency and accountability in the
award of public contracts in general, and particularly during the COVID-19
period, but this case was misjudged.

 

"Despite all of the challenges that this has caused our business, I am very
proud of the Abingdon team who have remained focused on serving our customers
and building our business throughout."

 

Dr Chris Hand, Non-Executive Chairman of Abingdon Health plc, commented: "This
has been a challenging time for our Company and we are delighted with Mr
Justice Waksman's judgement and his dismissal of all claims against the DHSC
with the associated implications for Abingdon Health. It is testament to the
robustness of our Company that we have dealt with this distracting challenge
and are now returning to growth. It is particularly pleasing to note Mr
Justice Waksman's comments on our credentials in the area of lateral flow.

 

"I would like to thank colleagues, friends, customers and shareholders for
their support as we move to the next phase of our Company's growth with
continued confidence."

 

Enquiries

 

 Abingdon Health plc                                              www.abingdonhealth.com/investors/ (http://www.abingdonhealth.com/investors/)
 Chris Yates, Chief Executive Officer                             Via Walbrook PR
 Melanie Ross, Chief Financial Officer
 Chris Hand, Non-Executive Chairman

 Singer Capital Markets (Sole Broker and Nominated Adviser)       Tel: +44 (0)20 7496 3000
 Peter Steel, Alex Bond (Corporate Finance)
 Tom Salvesen (Corporate Broking)

 Walbrook PR Limited              Tel: +44 (0)20 7933 8780 or abingdon@walbrookpr.com
                                  (mailto:abingdon@walbrookpr.com)
 Paul McManus / Phillip Marriage  Mob: +44 (0)7980 541 893 / +44 (0)7867 984 082

 Alice Woodings                   +44 (0)7407 804 654

 

Notes to Editors

No Directors of Abingdon are, or have ever been, members of the Conservative
Party or have ever provided donations to the Conservative Party.

 

About Abingdon Health plc

 

Abingdon Health is a world leading developer and manufacturer of
high-quality lateral flow rapid tests
(https://www.abingdonhealth.com/services/)  across all industry sectors,
including healthcare and COVID-19. Abingdon is the partner of choice for a
growing global customer base and takes projects from initial concept through
to routine and large-scale manufacturing and has also developed and marketed
its own labelled tests.

 

The Company offers product development, regulatory support, technology
transfer and manufacturing services for customers looking to develop new
assays or transfer existing laboratory-based assays to a lateral flow
format. Abingdon Health aims to support the increase in need for rapid
results across many industries and locations and produces lateral flow tests
in areas such as infectious disease, clinical testing including companion
diagnostics, animal health and environmental testing. Faster access to results
allows for rapid decision making, targeted intervention and can support better
outcomes. This ability has a significant role to play in improving life across
the world. To support this aim Abingdon Health has also developed AppDx(®),
a customisable image capturing technology that transforms a smartphone into a
self-sufficient, standalone lateral-flow reader.

 

Founded in 2008, Abingdon Health is headquartered in York, England.

 

For more information visit: www.abingdonhealth.com
(http://www.abingdonhealth.com/)

 

 

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